Rate My Professor Chris Pearson

Dr. Christopher Pearson is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the School of Surveying at the University of Otago. He holds a BSc from Union College, an MSc from the University of Alaska, and a PhD from the University of Otago awarded in 1991 for research on earth deformation along the New Zealand plate boundary. His research specializations include geodesy, crustal deformation, GPS processing, least squares adjustments, geodetic reference systems, dynamic and semi-dynamic datums, and deformation models for national datums in tectonically active areas such as New Zealand, the United States, Nepal, the Philippines, and South Pacific islands.

Pearson's career trajectory features a postdoctoral fellowship at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in 1992, followed by a research fellowship at the University of Otago from 1994 to 2001, during which he contributed significantly to the establishment of the New Zealand Tide Gauges network, the Southern Alps Vertical CGPS network, nearly all South Island campaign-style geodetic projects between 1993 and 2001, and the first InSAR study of a New Zealand earthquake. From 2001 to 2011, he served at the US National Geodetic Survey as Illinois State Geodetic Advisor, leading the HTDP software development, producing the first comprehensive deformation block model for western North America, improved velocity fields for Alaska, and dislocation models for events like the 2002 Denali earthquake. He returned to Otago as a lecturer from 2012 to 2017 and continues in his current honorary role. Major contributions encompass a three-year NZAid project developing a post-2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake datum for Nepal, collaboration with LINZ on the PosisitNZ-PP web-based GPS processing package and NZGD2000-ITRF08 datum transformation, and advisory work on semi-dynamic datums for Nepal and the Philippines. He chairs the Small Island Developing States committee of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors and supports capacity building through the Pacific Geomatics and Surveying Council. Key publications include 'Crustal motion models developed for version 3.2 of the Horizontal Time-Dependent Positioning utility' (Snay et al., Journal of Applied Geodesy, 2013), 'Strain partitioning along the western margin of North America' (Pearson & Snay, Journal of Structural Geology, 2014), and 'Options for developing modernized geodetic datum for Nepal following the April 25, 2015 Mw7.8 Gorkha earthquake' (Pearson et al., 2017).