Current Group Members
Iván Rojas-Churkovic (PhD Student)
Iván joined the Department of Earth Sciences in 2025, with an undergraduate degree in Geology and a MSc. in Geophysics from Universidad de Chile. His current research consists in a characterization of the plate interface between the Pacific and North American plates along the Alaska Peninsula, by calculating receiver functions in land and ocean bottom stations from the AACSE deployment.
2025-present
Ian Wynn (PhD Student)
Ian joined the Department of Earth Sciences in 2022, with a B.Sc. degree in Geology and Mathematics from Georgia Southwestern State University. His research focuses on the use of receiver function analysis in constraining the subsurface geometries of magmatic systems in the Aleutian island arc. Ian is a 2024 recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
2022-present
Past Group Members
UHM Graduate Researchers
Charles Hoots (PhD Student)
Charles joined the department in 2023, with an MSc. in Geophysics from the University of New Mexico with and a BSc. in Geology and Mathematics from the University of Hawai’i Hilo. His research focused on seismic noise properties at ocean bottom instruments for new methods on noise reduction.
2023-2025
Elliona Maso (MS Student)
Elliona joined the Department of Earth Sciences in 2022. She completed her MS degree at UH Mānoa in Summer 2025. Her thesis explored noise characteristics of cabled seafloor seismometers deployed offshore the Cascadia subduction zone to serve as a comparison baseline for future SMART cable deployments. She is now a Geomechanicist at Santos Oil and Gas in Papua New Guinea
2022-2025
Jade Wight (MS Student)
Jade joined the Department of Earth Sciences in 2021, with a Bachelors in Geophysics from UCLA. She completed her MS degree at UH Mānoa in Fall 2023. Her thesis focused on characterizing the magmatic storage systems under Hawaiʻi using high density nodal seismic data. She is now a Geologist at AECOM.
2021-2023
UHM Undergraduate Researchers
Casey Wandasan (Undergraduate Student Researcher)
Casey calculated and analyzed receiver functions at volcanoes in the central Aleutian island arc for his undergraduate thesis research, and presented his work at the 2023 AGU Fall Meeting and 2024 SSA Annual Meeting. Casey graduated in Spring 2024, and is now a PhD student at University of California Davis.
2022-2024
Sophia Hernandez (Undergrad Student Researcher)
Sophia analyzed noise levels at Raspberry Shake seismometers deployed in Mānoa Valley, and presented her work at the UHM Undergraduate Research Showcase in December 2022.
2021-2022
External Students
Miranda Smith-Polette (Undergrad ESVI REU Student)
Miranda participated in the Earth Sciences on Volcanic Islands REU during Summer 2025. Co-advised by Helen and Sin-Mei Wu, she calculated focal mechanisms for earthquakes from the Pāhala swarm. She graduated from the University of Texas El Paso in 2025. She is now a PhD student at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
2025
Elise Staat (Undergrad ESVI REU Student)
Elise participated in the Earth Sciences on Volcanic Islands REU during Summer 2022. Her research project used InSAR and local seismic receiver functions to measure surface and subsurface deformation of Kilauea volcano. She graduated with her Bachelors in Geology and minors in Math and Geospatial Technology from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 2023. She is now a NASA Global GNSS Network Engineer at EarthScope.
2022
Aude Guérin (Visiting Student Researcher)
Aude was French master’s student visiting from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris. She performed receiver function analysis at the Alaska subduction zone.
2022
Madeleine Tan (Undergrad ESVI REU Student)
Madeleine participated in the Earth Sciences on Volcanic Islands REU program during Summer 2021. Her project was titled “Using receiver functions to image deep crustal structure beneath Okmok volcano”. She completed a B.S. at University of Michigan, in Earth and Environmental Sciences and Physics in 2022, and is now pursuing a PhD at University of Colorado Boulder.
2021