I am a numerical geophysicist and ARC DECRA Fellow at the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University. I build adjoint and inverse methods for mantle convection, glacial isostatic adjustment and continental-scale groundwater, and I am a core developer of the open-source framework G-ADOPT.
- 2026 Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award, Geodynamics Division, European Geosciences Union
- AUD 4.4 million total value of grants on which I am an investigator, including AUD 1.06 million as sole investigator
- 1,235 citations, h-index 18 (Google Scholar, October 2026)
- More than 30 publications, including two papers in Nature Geoscience
Jobs
Jan 2014 - Jul 2019
PhD in Geodynamics.
LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
Nov 2019 - Nov 2023
Research Fellow (Level A & B).
ANU, RSES, Geophysics, Canberra, Australia.
Dec 2023 - Present
Faculty (Level B).
ANU, RSES, Climate and Ocean Geoscience, Canberra, Australia.
Education
Sep 2006 - Jun 2011
BSc in Physics.
Oct 2011 - July 2013
MSc in Geophysics.
Jan 2014 - Jul 2019
Awards and Fellowships
- Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award, Geodynamics Division, European Geosciences Union (2026). Award lecture at the EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna. Interview
- DECRA Fellowship (Discovery Early Career Researcher Award), Australian Research Council (2025–2028)
- Nominated for the J. G. Russell Award of the Australian Academy of Science as the top-ranked DECRA applicant of the year in the Sciences (2025)
- ANU Futures Scheme 2.0, Australian National University (2023–2028)
- Fellow of the Institute for Water Futures, ANU (2024–present)
- Affiliated Investigator, Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) (2022–present)
- Computers & Geosciences Research Scholarship Award, International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (2019)
Grants and Funding
Total value of grants on which I am an investigator: AUD 4,441,364 (amounts from the ANU research grants system, October 2026).
- ARC DECRA Fellowship (DE250100663): Sea Level in the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period: Unveiling Earth’s Mantle Effects. Australian Research Council, AUD 563,281 (2025–2028). Sole investigator: S. Ghelichkhan
- ANU Futures Scheme 2.0: Australian National University, AUD 500,000 (2023–2028). Sole investigator: S. Ghelichkhan
- From Space to Ground: Modelling Australia’s Water Dynamics through Remote Sensing and Land Surface Modelling (P3-49). SmartSat CRC, AUD 506,033 (2025–2026). CIs: S. Ghelichkhan (leads the research), P. Tregoning (project leader), L. Maubant, R. McGirr
- CoastRI GIA Modelling: AuScope, 2023 NCRIS RIIP, AUD 1,418,350 (2024–2027). CIs: D. R. Davies, S. Ghelichkhan, A. Gibson, M. Hoggard
- Next Generation Sea-Level Modelling: Geoscience Australia, AUD 150,000 (2022–2027). CIs: M. Hoggard, S. Ghelichkhan
- G-ADOPT: Geodynamic Adjoint Optimisation Platform: Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), AUD 1,303,700 total project funding (2021–2023). CIs: D. R. Davies, S. Ghelichkhan, M. Hoggard, M. Sambridge
Research Software
- G-ADOPT: Geoscientific ADjoint Optimisation PlaTform, a finite-element framework for forward and inverse geodynamics built on Firedrake. Core developer since 2021, with 14 tagged releases (October 2026). Framework paper: Ghelichkhan et al. (2024), Geoscientific Model Development. Software DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5644391
- Contributions to Firedrake and pyadjoint: merged contributions to the finite-element and automated-adjoint libraries on which G-ADOPT is built
- gdrift: Geodynamics Data Reformatting and Integration Facilitation Toolkit. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19199602
- llnltofi: tomographic filtering with the LLNL-G3D-JPS resolution matrix. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18796559
- srts: tomographic resolution filtering for comparing geodynamic models with seismic observations. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18829196
- OMEGA: Optimised Modelling of Environmental Groundwater in Australia, terrain-following meshes for groundwater simulation with G-ADOPT. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23083130
- PREM-stable: a gravitationally stable PREM for GIA models (with M. Hoggard and W. Scott). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23178245
- ausdem: Australian elevation data from Geoscience Australia as xarray arrays. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20755953
- austrata: access to Geoscience Australia borehole and hydrogeology data and Bureau of Meteorology groundwater bore data. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20756380
Academic Supervision
- Dr Hamish Brown: Supervisors: Sia Ghelichkhan, Rhodri Davies; 2025 – Present
- Dr Liam Morrow: Supervisor: Sia Ghelichkhan; 2024 – Present
- Dr Will Scott: Supervisors: Rhodri Davies, Sia Ghelichkhan, Mark Hoggard; 2023 – Present
- Ruby Turner: Primary Supervisor: Sia Ghelichkhan; 2023 – 2025
- Hojatollah Shirmardgouravan: Supervisors: R. Dietmar Müller, Sia Ghelichkhan; 2023 – Present
- Tom New: Supervisors: Maria Seton, Sia Ghelichkhan, Rhodri Davies, Ben Mather; 2023 – Present
- Ishan Tandon: Supervisors: Sia Ghelichkhan, Mark Hoggard, Rhys Hawkins, Rhodri Davies; Jun–Dec 2023
Teaching
- Course convenor, EMSC3025/6025 Remote Sensing of Water Resources, Australian National University (2025–present)
- G-ADOPT workshops: lectures on the finite element method and PDE-constrained optimisation
Service
- Journal reviewer for journals including Nature Geoscience, Geoscientific Model Development, Geophysical Journal International
- IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access) representative, Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU (2026–present)
- Member, RSES Education Committee, ANU (2025)
- Session co-convener:
- EGU General Assembly 2019, GD1.1: Models and observations of vertical plate motions, and the links between surface and deep mantle processes, in particular the plume mode of mantle convection: A tribute to Kevin Burke
- EGU General Assembly 2018, GD11.1: Linking observations to theoretical predictions in geodynamics
- AGU Fall Meeting 2017, DI011: Linking Mantle Dynamics to the Geological Record
- EGU General Assembly 2017, GD8.1: Linking observations to theoretical predictions in geodynamics
Invited and Award Lectures
- EGU General Assembly, May 2026, Vienna: Geodynamics Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award Lecture
- ETH Zurich, 2025, Zurich
- EarthByte Group, September 2021, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney
- Basin Genesis Hub Workshop, 2019, Sydney
Talks and Seminars
- Geophysics Weekly, August 2026: The physics and numerics of variably saturated porous media
- International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics General Assembly, 2024, New Delhi
- Australian Earth Sciences Convention, 2023, Perth
- Geophysics Seminar, May 2023, LMU Munich
- EGU General Assembly, 2023, Vienna: The Earth surface as a window into the asthenosphere and deeper mantle
- Geocomputing Seminar, March 2022, LMU Munich
- AGU Fall Meeting, 2021, session Integrative Perspectives on Present-day Mantle Structure
- SIAM Conference on Mathematical and Computational Issues in the Geosciences, 2019, Houston
Media and Outreach
- EGU Geodynamics blog, March 2026: Interview with the 2026 ECS GD awardee
- Eos, April 2026: Editors’ Highlight on our Tectonics paper on the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen and the reply to the comment on it
- ANU Institute for Water Futures, April 2024: What’s under the surface? Dr Sia Ghelichkhan and the untapped potential of groundwater
- Australian Water Association, July 2024: New groundwater research set to increase modelling reliability
Publications
Citation metrics: 1,235 citations, h-index 18, i10-index 23 (Google Scholar, October 2026). ORCID: 0000-0002-1316-3170.
Manuscripts submitted or in preparation
- S. Ghelichkhan, D. R. Davies, A. Gibson, D. Roberts, S. C. Kramer, M. J. Hoggard, W. I. Scott and T. Duvernay. Frontiers and future directions in inverse modelling of mantle convection. Submitted to Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
- L. Morrow, S. Ghelichkhan and S. C. Kramer. Scalable and locally mass-conservative simulation of basin-scale variably saturated groundwater flow.
Published
- (2026) A numerical solver for large scale three-dimensional variable saturated groundwater flow Technical report, The Australian National University DOI: 10.25911/pz64-3418
- (2026) Automated forward and adjoint modelling of viscoelastic deformation of the solid Earth Geoscientific Model Development, 19(7), 2717-2745 DOI: 10.5194/gmd-19-2717-2026
- (2026) Reply to comment by Hetényi and Cattin on: “Raising the roof of the world: Intra-crustal Asian mantle supports the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen” Tectonics, 45(4), e2026TC009436 ★ Featured in an Eos Editors’ Highlight DOI: 10.1029/2026TC009436
- (2025) Closing the budget of 20th century true polar wander Geophysical Journal International, 242(2), ggaf197 DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggaf197
- (2025) How to assess similarities and differences between mantle circulation models and Earth using disparate independent observations Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 481(2315), 20240827 DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2024.0827
- (2025) Raising the roof of the world: Intra-crustal Asian mantle supports the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen Tectonics, 44(9), e2025TC009057 ★ Featured in an Eos Editors’ Highlight DOI: 10.1029/2025TC009057
- (2024) Reconciling surface deflections from simulations of global mantle convection Geoscientific Model Development, 17(24), 9023-9049 DOI: 10.5194/gmd-17-9023-2024
- (2024) Automatic adjoint-based inversion schemes for geodynamics: Reconstructing the evolution of Earth’s mantle in space and time Geoscientific Model Development, 17(13), 5057-5086 DOI: 10.5194/gmd-17-5057-2024
- (2023) The influence of lithospheric thickness variations beneath Australia on seismic anisotropy and mantle flow Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 24(9), e2023GC011066 DOI: 10.1029/2023GC011066
- (2023) Observations and models of dynamic topography: Current status and future directions Dynamics of plate tectonics and mantle convection, 223-269 DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-323-85733-8.00017-2
- (2023) Geodynamic data assimilation: Techniques and observables to construct and constrain time-dependent Earth models Applications of data assimilation and inverse problems in the Earth sciences, 311-325 DOI: 10.1017/9781009180412.021
- (2023) Post-subduction tectonics induced by extension from a lithospheric drip Nature Geoscience, 16(7), 646-652 DOI: 10.1038/s41561-023-01201-7
- (2023) Geodynamic, geodetic, and seismic constraints favour deflated and dense-cored LLVPs Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 602, 117964 DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117964
- (2023) Cenozoic upper mantle flow history of the Atlantic realm based on Couette/Poiseuille models: Towards paleo-mantle-flowgraphy Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 340, 107045 DOI: 10.1016/j.pepi.2023.107045
- (2022) Towards automatic finite-element methods for geodynamics via Firedrake Geoscientific Model Development, 15(13), 5127-5166 DOI: 10.5194/gmd-15-5127-2022
- (2021) 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, 226(2), 1432-1460 DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggab108
- (2021) The precession constant and its long-term variation Icarus, 358, 114172 DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2020.114172
- (2021) Retrodictions of past mantle flow using global high-resolution Earth models High performance computing in science and engineering, 171
- (2020) Global distribution of sediment-hosted metals controlled by craton edge stability Nature Geoscience, 13(7), 504-510 DOI: 10.1038/s41561-020-0593-2
- (2020) TerraNeo – mantle convection beyond a trillion degrees of freedom Software for exascale computing – SPPEXA 2016–2019, 569-610 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-47956-5_19
- (2020) Quantifying the relationship between short-wavelength dynamic topography and thermomechanical structure of the upper mantle using calibrated parameterization of anelasticity Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 125(9), e2019JB019062 DOI: 10.1029/2019JB019062
- (2020) Minerals on the edge: Sediment-hosted base metal endowment above steps in lithospheric thickness Technical report, Geoscience Australia DOI: 10.11636/134991
- (2020) Structure and dynamics of the oceanic lithosphere-asthenosphere system Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 309, 106559 DOI: 10.1016/j.pepi.2020.106559
- (2019) Deep time reconstructions of internal Earth structure with the adjoint method Acta Geologica Sinica-English Edition, 93(S3), 3-4 DOI: 10.1111/1755-6724.14226
- (2019) Large-scale Simulation of Mantle Convection Based on a New Matrix-Free Approach Journal of Computational Science, 31, 60-76 DOI: 10.1016/j.jocs.2018.12.006
- (2019) Reconstruction of the thermo-chemical state of Earth’s mantle in space and time PhD thesis, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
- (2018) Stratigraphic framework for the plume mode of mantle convection and the analysis of interregional unconformities on geological maps Gondwana Research, 53, 159-188 DOI: 10.1016/j.gr.2017.06.003
- (2018) Retrodictions of Mid Paleogene mantle flow and dynamic topography in the Atlantic region from compressible high resolution adjoint mantle convection models: Sensitivity to deep mantle viscosity and tomographic input model Gondwana Research, 53, 252-272 DOI: 10.1016/j.gr.2017.04.027
- (2018) The adjoint equations for thermochemical compressible mantle convection: derivation and verification by twin experiments Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 474(2220), 20180329 DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2018.0329
- (2018) On the observability of epeirogenic movement in current and future gravity missions Gondwana Research, 53, 273-284 DOI: 10.1016/j.gr.2017.04.016
- (2016) Constraining central Neo-Tethys Ocean reconstructions with mantle convection models Geophysical Research Letters, 43(18), 9595-9603 DOI: 10.1002/2016gl070524
- (2016) The compressible adjoint equations in geodynamics: derivation and numerical assessment GEM - International Journal on Geomathematics, 7(1), 1-30 DOI: 10.1007/s13137-016-0080-5
- (2016) On the ratio of dynamic topography and gravity anomalies in a dynamic Earth Geophysical Research Letters, 43(6), 2510-2516 DOI: 10.1002/2016GL067929
- (2015) Fast asthenosphere motion in high-resolution global mantle flow models Geophysical Research Letters, 42(18), 7429-7435 DOI: 10.1002/2015GL063727