Faculty
Prof. Slava Solomatov studied at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Schmidt Institute of the Physics of the Earth. In 1990, he earned his Ph.D. under the guidance of his doctoral advisor, Prof. Vladimir Zharkov.
In 1990, Prof. Solomatov moved to Caltech where he conducted postdoctoral research under the supervision of Prof. David Stevenson. After spending several months at Kyushu University as a faculty member, he accepted a position at New Mexico State University. There, he enjoyed conducting research and teaching physics and geophysics courses in the Department of Physics from 1996 to 2004. In 2004, Prof. Solomatov joined the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. He served as Department Chair from 2013 to 2022.
Prof. Solomatov enjoys nature and wildlife photography.
Postdoctoral fellows
Dr. Chhavi Jain obtained her undergraduate degree at Dehli University where she conducted her undergraduate research under the supervision of Prof. Vinay Gupta. She did her masters studies at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, under the supervision of Prof. E. Chandrasekhar. For her doctoral degree, she went to Yale where she worked with Prof. Jun Korenaga on applying Monte Carlo methods to improve constraints on olivine rheology.
Shortly after receiving her Ph.D. in 2019, Dr. Jain joined the Geodynamics group at Washington University in St. Louis where she has been working with Prof. Solomatov on convection in temperature and stress-dependent viscosity fluids, including the non-linear onset of convection and the localization phenomenon, with application to the dynamics and evolution of planetary interiors.
Dr. Jain’s CV can be found here.
Former graduate and undergraduate students
Patrick Bradshaw (B.A. 2018) Research topic: “Rayleigh-Taylor instability in magma oceans”
Teresa Wong (Ph.D. 2016) Thesis: “Plate tectonics initiation on Earth-like planets: Insights from numerical and theoretical analysis of convection-induced lithospheric failure”
Diana Goeller (B.A. 2013) Honors thesis: “Localized subcritical and widespread convection in the Venusian crust”
Chris Orth (Ph.D. 2012) Thesis: “Geodynamic interpretations of global topography and gravity on Venus and Mars”
Yun Ke (Ph.D. 2009) Thesis: “Plume formation in strongly temperature-dependent
viscosity fluids: Application to early Mars”
Alexei Vezolainen (Ph.D. 2003) Thesis: “Dynamics of equatorial highlands on Venus”
Rifa El-Khozondar (Ph.D. 2002) Thesis: “Numerical simulations of microstructural evolution in metals, ceramics and rocks”
Chris Reese (Ph.D. 1999) Thesis: “Theory and numerical simulations of stagnant lid convection with applications to mantle dynamics and evolution of Mars and Venus”
Former postdoctoral fellows and research scientists
Chris Reese 1999-2000, 2004-2010