CPG

Location: Bldg. 15

Dr. Oliver Dorn

Adjunct Associate Professor, CIPR

Dr. Oliver Dorn is an internationally recognized authority on the application of level set methods to inverse problems. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at The University of Manchester. During his career, Dr. Oliver Dorn has been working on a large variety of important inverse problems including geophysical tomography, reservoir characterization, biomedical imaging, remote sensing and non-destructive evaluation of materials. He has been collaborating with several international and national companies such as Shell, Repsol/YPF, Schlumberger, Rohde und Schwarz, ITS, AWE, DSTL, LLNL, amongst others. Current research projects include large scale electromagnetic inverse problems, through-the-wall radar imaging, history matching and data assimilation, seismic full waveform inversion, and gravity/gradiometry imaging. He has been participating in a large variety of nationally and internationally funded research projects and consortia in the US, Canada, Spain, France, and the UK. He spent several extended invited research stays at international research centers such as MGSS (Stanford University), MSRI (Berkeley), IPAM (Los Angeles), IMA (Minneapolis), BIRS (Banff) and CenSSIS (Boston). He has presented over 150 mostly invited conference presentations worldwide and has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers, book chapters and review papers. Several of his publications have been selected by the journal ‘Inverse Problems’ to be included in its annual ‘Highlights Collections’, including a recent paper in 2017. He has supervised 7 Ph.D. projects and over 20 Master research projects on a variety of relevant practical topics.

Educational Qualification

  • Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Applied Mathematics, University of Münster, Germany, Award: Magna cum Laude. 1997
  • B.S. and M.S. in Mathematics, University of Münster, Germany, Highest award. Course of study: Mathematics. 1993
  • B.S. in Physics (oral exams), University of Münster, Germany. Course of study: Physics. 1992

Research Interests

  • Large scale electromagnetic inverse problems.
  • Seismic full waveform inversion.
  • Gravity and gradiometry imaging.
  • Reservoir characterization and history matching.
  • Through-the-wall radar imaging.
  • Inverse radiative transfer problems including X-ray micro-CT, diffuse optical and neutron/muon tomography.
  • Electrical impedance and capacitance tomography.
  • Statistical and Bayesian inverse problems.
  • Shape-based and level set methods for imaging and inversion.
  • Sparsity-promoting inversion and compressive sensing.
  • Big data, artificial intelligence, and deep learning algorithms.
  • Large scale numerical and shape optimization.
  • Data assimilation and time-dependent inverse problems.

Selected Publications

  • Villegas, C. Etienam, O. Dorn and M. Babaei, Shape and distributed parameter estimation for history matching using a modified ensemble Kalman filter and level sets, Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering, DOI 10.1080/17415977.2019.1583751, 2019.
  • Dorn, Distributed parameter estimation for the time-dependent radiative transfer equation, in: Frontiers in PDE-Constrained Optimization, Antil et al (Ed.), IMA volumes in mathematics and its applications, Springer, pp341-375, 2018.
  • Prieto and O. Dorn, Sparsity and level set regularization for diffuse optical tomography using a transport model in 2D, Inverse Problems 33 (1), 014001, 2016.
  • Dorn and D. Lesselier, Level set methods for structural inversion and image reconstruction, in: Handbook of Mathematical Methods in Imaging, Scherzer et al (Ed.), Springer, New York, pp. 385-444, 2011 (1st ed) and 2015 (2nd ed).
  • Dorn and R. Villegas, History matching of petroleum reservoirs using a level set technique, Inverse Problems 24 (3), 035015, 2008.
  • Dorn and D. Lesselier, Level set methods for inverse scattering, Topical Review, Inverse Problems 22 (4), pp R67-R131, 2006.
  • Soleimani, W.R.B. Lionheart and O. Dorn, Level set reconstruction of conductivity and permittivity from boundary electrical measurements using experimental data, Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering 14 (2) 193-210, 2006.
  • Dorn, E.L. Miller and C.M. Rappaport, A shape reconstruction method for electromagnetic tomography using adjoint fields and level sets, Inverse Problems 16 (5), pp 1119-1156, 2000.
  • Dorn, H. Bertete-Aguirre, J.G. Berryman, and G.C. Papanicolaou, A nonlinear inversion method for 3D electromagnetic imaging using adjoint fields, Inverse Problems 15 (6), pp 1523-1558, 1999.
  • Dorn, A transport-backtransport method for optical tomography, Inverse Problems 14 (5), pp 1107-1130, 1998.

Awards & Honors

  • 2012 Fellow of the British Higher Education Academy, professional recognition of teaching expertise in the UK.
  • 2007 Spanish Accreditation (awarded in a national Habilitation contest) in Applied Mathematics, an official recognition of excellence in research and teaching at national and international level in Spain.
  • International Advisory Board member of the prestigious journal ‘Inverse Problems’ (since 2008) https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0266-5611
  • Several of my publications have been selected by the journal Inverse Problems to be included on its webpage as ‘featured articles of the year’, in the years 1998, 2000, 2006 and 2017.
  • Consulted regularly by national funding agencies of various countries for evaluating research proposals or outcomes, amongst others: US, Italy, Finland, UK.
  • Appointed as external Ph.D. examiner/opponent at several prestigious research universities in Spain, Canada, UK, France, Italy.
  • Published various invited review papers on emerging research topics and edited invited special sessions at internationally renowned journals.
  • Since 2008 Member of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
  • Since 2006 Member of the European Association of Geosciences and Engineers (EAGE) (Gold member since 2019).
  • Since 2007 Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
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