Guest Lecturer

William Cumming

2018

MSc

Specialization

Geophysical Exploration

United States

Cumming Geoscience

Short Bio

The UNU Visiting Lecturer in 2018 was the American geophysicist and geothermal expert Mr. William Cumming. William or Bill, as he is usually called, provides consulting services for geophysical surveys, resource assessment, geophysical research, and training in the geothermal industry. Bill’s 40+ years of experience include 22 years with Unocal Corp. in positions from Geophysicist to Chief Geoscientist, working on development of the Geysers, Salton Sea, Bulalo, wibengkok, Tiwi and Heber fields and on worldwide geothermal exploration. Since 2000, he has worked as an independent geothermal consultant to industry, academic and government clients. Bill has managed surveys and completed analyses and interpretations for a wide variety of geophysical methods including MT, TEM, CSAMT, VES, HEM, reflection/refraction seismic, earthquake, gravity, repeat-microgravity, levelling, DGPS, and aeromagnetic surveys. While leading or supporting cross-functional teams, he has assessed well targets and resource capacity for magmatic and deep circulation geothermal systems in volcanic and sedimentary settings in the Americas, Asia, Africa, Iceland, Turkey and New Zealand. Bill’s publications on geophysical technology, and on the conceptual integration of geoscience and engineering data support his industry and academic courses. At the 2013 annual meeting of the GRC, Bill was presented with the Geothermal Special Achievement Award for, “outstanding contributions in improving the use of geophysical methods and conceptual models in the evaluation and development of geothermal resources.” Bill Cumming gave lectures on the application of geophysical methods in geothermal exploration and associated problems in Orkugardur, Grensásvegi 9, on September 3-7, starting at 9:00 in the morning, according to the following agenda, with each lecture being about one hour plus discussion: Monday, September 3 - 9:00-10:15 Geophysical constraints on geothermal resource conceptual models. Tuesday September 4 - 9:00-10:15 Integrating geophysics with engineering and geoscience disciplines: how professional silos impact geothermal decisions. Wednesday September 5 - 9:00-10:15 Mitigating acquisition, processing and interpretation pitfalls in geothermal MT, TEM, gravity, magnetic and reflection seismic surveys. Thursday September 6 - 9:00-10:15 High value geothermal development decisions informed by seismicity monitoring and repeat microgravity surveys. Friday September 7 - 9:00-10:15 Geothermal Resource Decision Workshops: training on integrating geoscience data to build geothermal conceptual models used to target wells, estimate resource capacity and assess confidence in resource decisions. The lecture series was at same time a start-up for a two-day Workshop on the same topic given on September 7-8, at Reykjavik University. The lectures were open for everyone and free of charge. The lecture series was well attended by both UNU-GTP Fellows and interested members of the Icelandic geothermal community.

Education

MSc, Geophysics, The University of British Columbia, 1974 - 1977
Bsc, Physics, University of Toronto

Organisation

Geothermal Resource Consultant, Cumming Geoscience