Xiaodong Song's Homepage


	XIAODONG SONG Professor Seismology, Earth's Deep Interior Ph.D., Caltech, 1994

Contact information:
Department of Geology, 1301 W Green St, Urbana, IL 61801, phone: (217)333-1841, fax: (217)244-1808,
email: xsong@illinois.edu

Research Interests

My research involves primarily the application of seismic observations in modeling and imaging the structure and dynamics of the Earth's interior. My research has focused on structure and dynamics of the Earth's core (inner core super-rotation, inner core anisotropy and heterogeneity, structure near the inner core-fluid core boundary), lateral variation of the lowermost mantle and core-mantle boundary, and crustal and upper mantle structure beneath east Asia with seismic travel times and new digital broadband waveform data.

[Click here for a brief description of May 12 Wenchuan, Sichuan, China earthquake]
[Click here for ARCTIC field experiment]
[Click here for my research publications (including links for download)]

Courses Taught (with links)

Geology for Engineers, Introduction to Seismology, Data Analysis for Geosciences, Introduction to Geophysics, Methods in Applied Geophysics , Physics of Earth's Interior

Curriculum Vita

Education

1994 Ph.D., Geophysics with Computer Science minor, California Institute of Technology

1991 M.S., Geophysics, California Institute of Technology

1986 B.S., Geophysics, University of Science and Technology of China

1994	Ph.D., Geophysics with Computer Science minor, California Institute of Technology
1991	M.S., Geophysics, California Institute of Technology
1986	B.S., Geophysics, University of Science and Technology of China

Professional Experience

2008- Professor, Dept. of Geology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2003-2008 Associate Professor, Dept. of Geology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

1999-2003 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geology, University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign

1996-1999 Storke-Doherty Lecturer, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University; and Associate Research Scientist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University

1994-1996 Postdoctoral Fellow, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University; also Visiting Investigator at Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington

2008-	Professor, Dept. of Geology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2003-2008	Associate Professor, Dept. of Geology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1999-2003	Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geology, University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign
1996-1999	Storke-Doherty Lecturer, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University; and Associate Research Scientist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
1994-1996	Postdoctoral Fellow, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University; also Visiting Investigator at Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Awards and Honors

2006 Associate, Center for Advanced Studies, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

2006 Work on confirmation of inner core rotation (Zhang et al., SCIENCE, 1995) featured in DISCOVER Year in Science.

1998 Outstanding Young Scientist Award, NSF of China

1997 Science and Technology Agency (STA) Fellow, Research Development Corporation of Japan

1996 Durk Doornbos award by the Studies of Earth Deep Interior (SEDI) committee of
International Union of Geophysics and Geodesy (IUGG)

1996, 2000 The work on the detection of inner core super-rotation (Song and Richards, NATURE, 1996) named as a 1996 Break Through of the Year by SCIENCE magazine and received the 1996 Science and Technology Award by PopularScience magazine. In 2000, this work was named as one of most important science discoveries in the 20th century DISCOVER magazine.

1996-1999 Storke-Doherty Lectureship of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

1994-1996 Lamont-Doherty Postdoctoral Fellowship

1989-1992 Sir Run Run Shaw (of Hong Kong) Fellowship at Caltech

2006	Associate, Center for Advanced Studies, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
2006	Work on confirmation of inner core rotation (Zhang et al., SCIENCE, 1995) featured in DISCOVER Year in Science.
1998	Outstanding Young Scientist Award, NSF of China
1997	Science and Technology Agency (STA) Fellow, Research Development Corporation of Japan
1996	Durk Doornbos award by the Studies of Earth Deep Interior (SEDI) committee of International Union of Geophysics and Geodesy (IUGG)
1996, 2000	The work on the detection of inner core super-rotation (Song and Richards, NATURE, 1996) named as a 1996 Break Through of the Year by SCIENCE magazine and received the 1996 Science and Technology Award by PopularScience magazine. In 2000, this work was named as one of most important science discoveries in the 20th century DISCOVER magazine.
1996-1999	Storke-Doherty Lectureship of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
1994-1996	Lamont-Doherty Postdoctoral Fellowship
1989-1992	Sir Run Run Shaw (of Hong Kong) Fellowship at Caltech

Professional Service

2008-present, Chair, IRIS GSN Standing Committee
2008 Program Committee, Bilateral Workshop under the Sino - US Earthquake Studies Protocol
2007 Delegate, US-China Coordinating Meeting on Earthquake Studies
2006 Program Committee member, AGU Western Pacific Meeting, Beijing.
2005-2006 IRIS GSN Standing Committee
2004 Co-Convener and Co-Chair, Special on Intraplate Tectonics: North China and Other Regions, Fall AGU, San Francisco, CA.
2002 Convener, Special Union Session on The Earth's Core: New Insights and Challenges, Spring AGU, Washington DC.
2001 Proposal review panel, NSF of China
2001 Co-Convener, Special Session on Inner Core -Outer Core and Lower Mantle Structure and Interactions, the joint IAGA-IASPEI Assembly in Hanoi, August.
2000 Co-Chair, Session on Core Structure, Fall AGU, San Francisco, CA.
2000-2004 Editorial board member: Progress in Natural Science
2000-Present Alternate Representative to the Board of Directors of IRIS
1998 Co-Convener and Co-Chair, Special Seismology session on Anisotropy and Rotation of the Inner Core, Spring AGU, Boston, MA.
1998 Convener and Chair, Special Union/SEDI session on Structure and Dynamics of the Inner Core, Fall AGU, San Francisco, CA.

Selected Publications (Past 5 Years)

Song, X.D., Preface to the special issue on ambient noise seismology, Earthq. Sci., 23, 395-396, Doi: 10.1007/s11589-010-0744-4, 2010.

Sun, X.L., X.D. Song, S.H. Zheng, Y.J. Yang, and M.H. Ritzwoller, Three dimensional shear wave velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath China from ambient noise surface wave tomography, Earthq. Sci., 23, 449-463, Doi: 10.1007/s11589-010-0744-4, 2010.

Lindner, D., X.D. Song, and P. Ma, New insights into the inner-core rotation and its variability, J. Geophys. Res., 115, doi:10.1029/2009JB006294, 2010.

Xu, Z.J., and X.D. Song, Joint inversion for crustal and Pn velocities and Moho depth for eastern margin of Tibetan Plateau, Tectonophysics, 491, 185-193, 2010.

Xu, Z.J., and X.D. Song, Temporal changes of surface wave velocity associated with major Sumatra earthquakes from ambient noise correlation, Proc. Natl. Aca. Sci. USA, 106, 14207-14212, 2009.

Dai, W., and X.D. Song, Detection of motion and heterogeneity in Earth's liquid outer core, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L16311, doi:10.1029/2008GL034895, 2008.

Song, X.D., and W. Dai, Topography of Earth's inner core boundary from high-quality waveform doublets, Geophys. J. Int., 175, 386-399, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2008.03909.x, 2008.

Zheng, S.H., X.L. Sun, X.D. Song, Y.J. Yang, M.H. Ritzwoller, Surface wave tomography of China from ambient seismic noise correlation, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 9, Q05020, doi:10.1029/2008GC001981, 2008.

Sun, X.L., and X.D. Song, Tomographic inversion for three-dimensional anisotropy of Earth's inner core, Phys. Earth. Planet. Inter., 167, 53-70, doi:10.1016/j.pepi.2008.02.011, 2008.

Sun, X.L., and X.D. Song, The inner inner core of the Earth: Texturing of iron crystals from three-dimensional seismic anisotropy, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 56-65, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2008.01.049, 2008.

Song, X.D., and G. Poupinet, Inner core rotation from event-pair analysis, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 261, 259-266, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2007.06.034, 2007.

Song, X.D., Inner core anisotropy, in Encyclopedia of Geomagnetism and Plaeomagnetism (D. Gubbins and E. Herroro-Bervera, Eds.), 418-420, Kluwer Acad. Publishers B.V., 2007.

Sun, X.L., X.D. Song, S.H. Zheng, and D.V. Helmberger, Evidence for a chemical-thermal structure at base of mantle from sharp lateral P-wave variations beneath Central America, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 104 (1), 26-30, doi:10.1073/pnas.0609143103, 2007.

Zheng, S.H., X.L. Sun, and X.D. Song, Fine structure of P-wave velocity variations underneath the Central Pacific from PKP waves recorded at the China Seismic Network (CSN), Chinese J. Geophys., 50(1), 183-191, 2007.

Liang, C.T., and X.D. Song, A low velocity belt beneath northern and eastern Tibetan Plateau from Pn tomography, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L22306, doi:10.1029/2006GL027926, 2006.

Sun, X.L., G. Poupinet, and X.D. Song, Examination of systematic mislocation of South Sandwich Islands earthquakes using station pairs: Implications for inner core rotation, J. Geophys. Res., 111, B11305, doi:10.1029/2005JB004175, 2006.

Zhang, J., X.D. Song, Y.C. Li, P.G. Richards, X.L. Sun, and F. Waldhauser, Inner core differential motion confirmed by earthquake doublet waveform doublets, Science, 309, 1357-1360, doi:10.1126/science.1113193, 2005.

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