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  Alexandre Boucher,

  Acting Assistant Professor

  Environmental Earth System Science

 

 

My main interest is in probabilistic modeling of complex spatial phenomena, whether natural or anthropogenic. My research projects have ranged from characterizing subsurface heterogeneity of an atomic bomb test site and oil/gas reservoirs, to downscaling remote sensing images to monitoring urban sprawl in China using satellite images to predicting urban growth patterns from historical observations. I emphasize the inherent uncertainty of the phenomenon, the model and the data and their consequences in decision making and risk assessment.  A strong motivation to me is to expand the field of applications of geostatistics, e.g. by mapping land covers from satellite images or forecasting urban growth in China, or the wind speed of the coast of California and then learn from these new developments. I am still collaborating with mining and oil research projects.

 

 

In the last two years I have been heavily involved in extending and maintaining the open-source Stanford Geostatistical Modeling Software (SGeMS) software. In addition to offering a wide variety of state-of-the-art geostatistical algorithms, the software provides an efficient platform for diffusing latest research in 3D probabilistic modeling to the community. I am also a co-author of a companion book, Applied Geostatistics with SGeMS, being published by Cambridge University Press. I continue to develop and expand the companion open-source Stanford Geostatistical Modeling Software (SGeMS), adding algorithms as they become proven and relevant. That software represents the ultimate outreach of the geostatistics group at Stanford. Any academic research must be anchored on a solid record of publications and, as important, a widely accessible and expandable freeware.

Background

I have a degree in geological engineering from Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, a MPhil degree in mining  geostatistics from University of Queensland and a PhD from Stanford University.