Institute of Applied Physics Geophysical Society
| President | Andrey Konkov |
|---|---|
| Faculty Advisor | Andrey Lebedev |
| Country | Russian Federation |
| Status | Active |
| Ranking | Summit Level |
The Institute of Applied Physics Geophysical Society (SEG Student Chapter located in Nizhny Novgorod) is one of the most active and developing student geophysical organizations in the World. It is based on the Geophysical Acoustics Department of the Institute of Applied Physics. Its faculty advisor, Dr. Andrey Lebedev is the Head of Laboratory. The Chapter consists of students from both the Institute of Applied Physics and Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod.
Current SEG Student Chapter Officers
| President | Andrey Konkov | IGSC 5 Chairman and Field Camp 2014 & 2015 Leader |
| Vice-President | Ekaterina Shurgalina | |
| Secretary/Treasurer | Alexey Smirnov | |
| Faculty Advisor | Andrey Lebedev | PhD, the Head of Laboratory |
Overview
One of the key fundamentals of the Chapter’s development plan is the continuous involvement in new and challenging projects of big social value such as the organization of the 5th International Geosciences Student Conference (it was an unique experience for Russia) or Field Camp 2014 (from the point of view of attracting attention from federal and local governments on contemporary problems in archaeology and its rich cultural heritage). The second one is the constant work on promotion of geophysics and its activities while tutoring high-school and undergraduate students. We also succeed in it. For example, the Chapter's president, Andrey Konkov won 2 prestigious awards in 2014 for the achievements made together with his mentee Elisey Ermilin for their mutual research work. The first steps after Chapter's foundation were taken in 2013, when its students organized a series of field trips in the Nizhny Novgorod area (devoted to the development of seismic methods for subsoil visualization), which were supported by the Institute of Applied Physics. In half a year the Institute of Applied Physics Geophysical Society was elected to be a host organization for the 5th International Geosciences Student Conference which was then successfully held in the summer of 2014.
5th International Geosciences Student Conference (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 2014)
For the first time of its existence, IGSC was conducted in close collaboration with other Russian SEG Student Chapters – from Moscow and Perm. Such successful collaboration with other Chapters was not limited to conference organization but also involved the Field Camp 2014, which was carried out together with the Student Geoscientific Society Berlin & Potsdam.
Field Camp 2014
As current President of SEG Student Chapter in Berlin Lennart Brüning said, "The objective of the field camp was the Podvyaze burial site close to the city. It is a monument of the 4th century and the first grave of the complex was found and studied in 2010. Two years later, the first research excavation was carried out by local archaeologists. Nowadays, Podvyaze is listed in the state register of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation and is recognized as a monument of federal importance. In addition to 18 discovered graves with humans and animals, archaeologists have found 284 objects such as bracelets, rings, elements of weapons and other grave goods. The aim of our field camp was to reveal buried structures by using different geophysical applications and to support archeological work in the sense of pinpointing proper excavation sites. Since the Russian participants are Nizhny Novgorod citizens the contact to the local archaeologists has quickly been established. We applied geomagnetics, geoelectrics (ERT), ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and near-surface seismic. Each participant was responsible for one application and had to take care of the proper implementation. Beside us three German participants, four Russian fellow students were working on the survey-site. Moreover, we had excellent assistance aside by operators, who provided the survey equipment and scientists of the joining faculties. The survey-site was situated about 40 km south-west of Nizhny Novgorod and the daily transfer from the city centre was a notable part of each working day. To reach the measurement location we had to go off-road, with a common passenger car. There are several archaeological sites in this area and we agreed to survey a spot nearby a forest edge which measures 9 m x 15 m. Since we decide an array step of 25 cm for some applications, the measuring campaigns comprised partly 2257 measurement points distributed over 37 profiles. Thus, first results of the measurements looked quite promising. Our fully report including results and interpretation can be enquired at the Student Geoscientific Society. Since future on-site excavations won't start before 2015, we have to be patient with the final certainty whether we found buried treasures or not." The Field Camp 2014 attracted attention from mass media: along with on-site broadcast where its participants were being interviewed, there were lots of newsman's visits to the Institute of Applied Physics, round table discussions, even teleshows for kids where Chapter representatives and faculty advisors have been explaining the basics of geophysics. In 2015 such initiatives should be obviously developed by the organization of the proposed Field Camp and its outcome should be even greater than a year before.
Miscellaneous
Beyond such a major projects, officers of the SEG Student Chapter in Nizhny Novgorod never forget about smaller activities such as organization of lectures delivered by the best professionals in geosciences. These lectures are aimed to foster high-school and undergraduate students to take first steps in such a challenging and interesting world that is geophysics. Always welcomed SEG Honorary Lecturers help to achieve these ideas: Laurent Sirgue (Total) and Evgeny Landa (Geomage) delivered their lectures “Full waveform inversion of seismic data: Investigating the Earth for high-resolution velocities and more...” and "Pitfalls and challenges of seismic imaging" correspondingly in 2014 and 2015. Besides that, students from the Institute of Applied Physics Geophysical Society develop their leader and professional skills by participation in SEG student programs: in 2014 Ekaterina Shurgalina and Andrey Konkov attended SEP and SLS correspondingly. In 2015 Andrey Konkov being the SEP participant at the 6th International Geosciences Student Conference (Prague, Czech Republic) won the "2015 European SEG Challenge Bowl" and then 10th Annual International SEG Challenge Bowl Finals together with Rasesh Saraya (IIT Bombay SEG Student Chapter) .