Suzan van der Lee

About

Suzan van der Lee is a Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Northwestern University. She holds a Ph.D. in Geological and Geophysical Sciences from Princeton University and a Master's degree in Geophysics with minors in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Utrecht. Her research focuses on various aspects of geophysics, including seismic waveforms, Earth's interior, and crustal structures, with specific interests in seismology, geochemistry, paleoclimatology, and planetary science. She has contributed to understanding Earth's structure through waveform inversion, seismic delay times, and crustal studies, and her work extends to planetary seismology, including Marsquake analysis. Van der Lee is actively involved in teaching courses related to earthquakes, Earth's interior, seismology, and geophysical methods, and she has published extensively on topics related to Earth's geophysical properties.

Research topics

• Geology
• Seismology
• Geophysics
• Paleontology
• Computer Science
• Geochemistry
• Computational physics
• World Wide Web
• Mathematics
• Optics

Selected publications

• Adjoint Waveform Tomography of South America

  Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth · 2022 · 35 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Abstract We used 3D spectral‐element seismic wave simulations and data from 112 earthquakes and 1,311 seismic stations, totalizing 20,884 unique ray paths, to construct an adjoint waveform tomographic model of South America. We performed 23 conjugate‐gradient iterations using exponentiated phase (EP) measurements. Our final model (SAAM23, South American Adjoint Model—iteration 23) shows a 50% decrease in the EP misfit relative to its 3D starting model. We further assessed the phase misfit reduct…

  PublisherDOI

• The late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic Grenvillian orogeny and the assembly of Rodinia: Turning point in the tectonic evolution of Laurentia

  Geological Society of America eBooks · 2022 · 30 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  ABSTRACT The amalgamation of Laurentia’s Archean provinces ca. 1830 Ma was followed by ~700 m.y. of accretionary orogenesis along its active southeastern margin, marked by subduction of oceanic lithosphere, formation of arcs and back-arcs, and episodic accretion. This prolonged period of active-margin tectonic processes, spanning the late Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic eras, resulted in major accretionary crustal growth and was terminated by closure of the Unimos Ocean (new name). Ocean cl…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Using Seismic Source Parameters to Model Frequency-Dependent Surface-Wave Radiation Patterns

  Seismological Research Letters · 2020 · 13 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Abstract The excitation of surface waves depends on the frequency-dependent eigenfunctions of the Earth, which are determined numerically. As a consequence, radiation patterns of Rayleigh and Love waves cannot be calculated analytically and vary with source depth and with frequency. Owing to the importance of surface-wave amplitudes for inversions of source processes as well as studies of the elastic and anelastic structure of the Earth, assessing surface-wave radiation patterns for different so…

  DOI

• Potential Volcano‐Tectonic Origins and Faulting Mechanisms of Three Low‐Frequency Marsquakes Detected by a Single InSight Seismometer

  Journal of Geophysical Research Planets · 2022-09-23 · 9 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Utilizing low‐frequency events reported by the Marsquake Service (MQS), we selected waveform data collected from the InSight mission to characterize the origins of three potential marsquakes. S0173a and S0235b were determined to originate near the Cerberus Fossae region. Our calculated backazimuths and epicentral distances were in agreement with those provided by the InSight team. The third event, S0325ab, likely originated southeast of the lander with an epicentral distance of 38.4°, u…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Sensitivity volume as figure-of-merit for maximizing data importance in electrical impedance tomography

  Physiological Measurement · 2024-04-01 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Objective. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a noninvasive imaging method whereby electrical measurements on the periphery of a heterogeneous conductor are inverted to map its internal conductivity. The EIT method proposed here aims to improve computational speed and noise tolerance by introducing sensitivity volume as a figure-of-merit for comparing EIT measurement protocols. Approach. Each measurement is shown to correspond to a sensitivity vector in model space, such that the…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• The Keel of the Amazonian Craton

  NSF · $203k · 2006–2010

• Acquisition of computing environment for geophysical research at Northwestern's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

  NSF · $75k · 2009–2011

• Collaborative Research: Superior Province Rifting Earthscope Experiment (SPREE)

  NSF · $462k · 2010–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Federica Marone

  Paul Scherrer Institute

  22 shared

• A. W. Frederiksen

  University of Manitoba

  18 shared

• Marcelo Assumpção

  Universidade de São Paulo

  18 shared

• Mei Feng

  16 shared

• M. van der Meijde

  University of Twente

  15 shared

• Domenico Giardini

  ETH Zurich

  13 shared

• Seth Stein

  Northwestern University

  12 shared

• Guust Nolet

  Géoazur

  12 shared

Labs

• Suzan van der Lee LabPI

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