Rate My Professor Sia Ghelichkhan

Dr. Siavash (Sia) Ghelichkhan serves as a Lecturer (Tenure-Track) in the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University, having joined the faculty in 2024. He holds a concurrent fellowship with the Institute for Water Futures since 2024 and is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow. Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, Ghelichkhan initiated his academic journey in theoretical and mathematical physics at the University of Tehran before shifting to earth sciences. He obtained a Master's degree in Geophysics and a PhD in Geodynamics from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the Technical University of Munich in 2019. Subsequently, he undertook postdoctoral research at LMU Munich prior to relocating to Australia in 2019. His career trajectory reflects a commitment to advancing numerical methods in geosciences, with appointments as a researcher in the Geophysics group and a member of the Climate and Ocean Geoscience area at ANU's Research School of Earth Sciences.

Ghelichkhan's research centers on developing and optimizing large-scale numerical models of Earth system processes, employing adjoint data assimilation techniques to tackle complex geoscientific challenges. Key foci include mantle convection and its influence on dynamic topography, gravity anomalies, and sea-level variations; continental-scale groundwater modeling for sustainable resource management; and glacial isostatic adjustment. As co-lead of the Geoscientific Adjoint Optimisation Platform (G-ADOPT), he integrates finite-element methods with inverse modeling to produce reproducible, observation-constrained simulations assimilating satellite geodesy and borehole data. Current projects encompass G-PREM, a three-dimensional dynamic reference Earth model for Cenozoic mantle evolution, and extensions of G-ADOPT to groundwater digital twins. Prominent publications feature 'Global distribution of sediment-hosted metals controlled by craton edge stability' (Nature Geoscience, 2020), 'Global mantle flow retrodictions for the early Cenozoic using an adjoint method: evolving dynamic topographies, deep mantle structures, flow trajectories and sublithospheric stresses' (Geophysical Journal International, 2021), 'Towards automatic finite-element methods for geodynamics via Firedrake' (Geoscientific Model Development, 2022), and 'Closing the budget of 20th century true polar wander' (Geophysical Journal International, 2025). His contributions earned the 2026 European Geosciences Union (EGU) Geodynamics Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award.