IDEA League Joint Master in Applied Geophysics

© IDEA League
Prof. Florian Wagner reflecting on his graduation from the program in 2011 – ten years later at the anniversary celebrations in Den Haag.

The IDEA League Joint Master in Applied Geophysics is a two-year program offered by TU Delft, ETH Zurich, and RWTH Aachen University. Each participating university teaches one semester followed by the final semester of research in the frame of the Master’s thesis project. In the first semester, students will attend courses at TU Delft, where the theory of different geophysical methods and data analysis are in the focus. After the first semester, all students move to Switzerland to start their second semester at ETH Zurich. Here, inverse theory, numerical modeling, and applications of geophysical methods are part of the curriculum followed by an extensive field course, during which geophysical data will be acquired, processed, and interpreted by the students.

The second year of the program starts at RWTH Aachen University, where students are free to choose their courses out of a pool of subjects depending on the personal interests and the skills they want to acquire. GIM offers a course on inverse concepts for multi-method imaging and several exciting M.Sc. thesis topics.

Throughout their studies, all students are able to select mandatory and voluntary elective courses at each university to get more insight into other related fields within geosciences, computational sciences, or economics. At the end of their studies, participants are thus able to solve complex and interdisciplinary geophysical problems and have a good understanding of geophysical applications in the context of resource exploration, environmental studies, or engineering applications for example.

This exciting and diverse program is attracting students from all over the world and therefore participants are part of an international group traveling through three exciting cities in the center of Europe. This will not only be beneficial for their personal development, but also for the mobility often required on today’s job market.

More information

For more details about the teaching contents, structure, and logistics of the IDEA League Joint Master’s in Applied Geophysics, visit the website of the program and the brochure.

The program from RWTH side is led by Prof. Florian Wellmann and coordinated by Dr. Christin Bobe (CG3 - Computational Geoscience, Geothermics and Reservoir Geophysics).

Contact: appliedgeophysics@geol.rwth-aachen.de