Rob Govers  Associate Professor of Geophysics

Mail address	Visiting address
Department of Earth Sciences	Room 248 (2nd floor)
Faculty of Geosciences	Vening Meinesz Building A
Utrecht University	Princetonlaan 8A
P.O. Box 80.115	University campus "De Uithof"
3508 TCUtrecht	Utrecht
The Netherlands	The Netherlands
phone: (..) (0)30-2 534 985 fax: (..) (0)30-2 535 030  r.govers AT uu DOT nl

Rob Govers is an Associate Professor in the Geophysics Group at Utrecht University's Geosciences Faculty. He has been leading the Tectonophysics research team since 2012. Rob earned his PhD from Utrecht University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Geodynamics Research Group at Penn State before joining the Tectonophysics research team in 1995.

Rob´s research utilizes high-performance computing to tackle various problems, including Bayesian inference of earth processes and rheological properties, the earthquake cycle, and geomechanical issues related to geo-resources and storage, such as subsidence. Other main research interests are the geodynamics of plate boundaries, lithosphere scale deformation processes and the expressions of these processes in geophysical and geological data. He works on the geodynamic evolution of the Mediterranean region, and on the role of solid earth processes in the Messinian salinity crisis. He also studies the geodynamic evolution of the Caribbean region. Rob develops numerical modeling tools for the solution of partial differential equations (GTECTON, GFLEX). He has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters.

Rob has served as an expert advisor for Dutch parliamentary committees on hazards associated with the Groningen gas field, Editor in Chief for the journal Tectonophysics, and on committees for the Dutch Research Council. Rob is often featured in the news for his insights on recent natural disasters. In 2014, he was awarded a Fellowship by the Geological Society of America.

Here is a recent Curriculum Vitae, here are my publication records on ORCID and Metis, and here is a citation list by Google Scholar.

Current research themes:

• Evolution of forces and stresses within the Eurasia plate. Rob Govers, Renato Guitierez, Marius Wouters, Rinus Wortel, Karin Warners-Ruckstuhl. We combine plate tectonic reconstructions combined with physical models of the forces that drive and resists plate motion to predict stress, slip on major faults, and strain and verti cal axis rotations for selected Cenozoic time slices. We include mantle convective tractions, tractions deriving from interactions with neighbouring plates, and intraplate forces deriving from gravitational potential energy. The predictions are confronted with a wide range of observation types to discriminate between realistic and unrealistic models.
• The geodetic signature of the earthquake cycle at subduction zones. Rob Govers, Celine Marsman, Mario D´Acquisto. Earthquake cycle models specific for subduction margins that capture both the short and long term mechanical evolution and related geodetic observations. Do take a look at our educational movie
• Cenozoic evolution and geodynamics of Anatolia. Rob Govers, Andreas Fichtner, Ali Ozbakir, Jeroen Bartol, Rinus Wortel, Combine inferences from full-waveform tomography with published field observations and reconstructions to constrain the present-day and Cenozoic evolution of the crust and upper mantle of Anatolia.
• Mechanics of active STEPs, and their expressions in active tectonics -- applications to the Central Mediterranean and the south Caribbean. Rob Govers, Nicolai Nijholt, Taco Broerse, Ernst Willingshofer, What are the controls on the propagation and strain localisation along STEPs and STEP faults (sensu Govers and Wortel, 2005; Baes et al., 2011)?

1. Deformatie en Metamorfose van de Korst (Second year BSc course, GEO2-12-9, block 2, 2024-25
2. Introduction to Natural Hazards (2nd/3rd year BSc course, GEO2-4211, block 3, 2024-25)

MSc/PhD courses:

1. Tectonophysics next: block 2, 2024-25
2. Hazards and Risk Assessment, block 3, 2024-25.
3. Modelling Crust and Lithosphere Deformation, next: block 1, 2024.
   

Last modified: June 4, 2024