Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) is proud to announce that it has had its first faculty member invited to take part in a Ministry of Natural Resources expedition to Antarctica. Department of Earth and Space Sciences (ESS) Research Assistant Professor Fu Lei was invited to take part in the 36th Antarctic Expedition from November 17 to February 10.

Research Assistant Professor Fu Lei is a recent addition to ESS, joining in 2018. He graduated from China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) and Jilin University while completing part of his Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research interests include full-waveform inversion, surface wave inversion and artificial intelligence in applied geophysics. He has published 11 SCI-standard papers as either the first and correspondent author.

He is joining the fixed-wing aircraft team of the 36th Antarctic Expedition (expedition team). The expedition team will be conducting aerogeophysical (ice radar, gravity and magnetic) surveys in the East Antarctic area and ambient noise observations along the route that runs inland between Zhongshan and Taishan Station, to image the detailed structure of the East Antarctic ice sheet and upper crust.

The expedition team has been in Antarctica since November 20. Fu Lei has completed the seismic instrument deployment earlier this month in conjunction with his colleagues on the expedition team. They will recover the instruments and process the data after 45 days.

The 36th Antarctica Expedition uses the full repertoire of research platforms at its disposal to carry out the construction of its new Antarctic station on Enksburg Island. The new station will carry out significant scientific research across a range of disciplines.