Rate My Professor Phil Cummins

Professor Phil Cummins is an Adjunct Professor in the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences and holds a joint appointment as Professor of Natural Hazards between the Australian National University and Geoscience Australia. He earned his PhD in Geophysics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1988. Following his doctoral studies, Cummins served as a postdoctoral researcher and research fellow at the Australian National University until 1996. He then moved to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), where he led a geodynamics research unit. In 2001, he joined Geoscience Australia to lead earthquake and tsunami hazard research. Since 2011, he has combined teaching and research in natural hazards at ANU with technical applications in earthquake and tsunami science at Geoscience Australia.

Cummins' research focuses on understanding earthquakes and their impacts, including earthquake source mechanisms, seismic wave propagation, tsunami generation and propagation, and seismic wave amplification in sedimentary basins, particularly in Indonesia. His work encompasses rapid estimation of earthquake slip distributions, crustal strain accumulation for earthquake potential assessment, and improvements to tsunami warning systems using long-period W-phase data. He has contributed significantly to seismic hazard assessment in the Asia-Pacific region, including the development of Indonesia's 2017 national seismic hazard maps and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessments for Western Australia. Key publications include 'Splay fault branching along the Nankai subduction zone' (2002, 649 citations), 'The slip distribution of the 1946 Nankai earthquake estimated from tsunami inversion using a new plate model' (2002, 245 citations), and 'Development of the 2017 national seismic hazard maps of Indonesia' (2020, 218 citations). In recognition of his contributions, Cummins received the Australian Public Service Medal in 2022 for outstanding scientific leadership in pioneering research programs to reduce earthquake and tsunami risks in Australia and the Asia-Pacific. His efforts support developing countries in hazard assessment and early warning capabilities.