CPG
Tel: +966 (013) 860-3765

Location: Bldg. 76, Rm. 2127

Dr. Sherif M. H. Mahmoud

Associate Professor, Program Leader – Geophysics, Department of Geosciences

Dr. Sherif M. Hanafy is currently a visiting associate professor at KFUPM. He was a senior research scientist at KAUST from 2009 until July 2018. During this time, he was the founder and in charge of the geophysical field program (Seismology Lab). His research interests include geophysical field methods, seismic interferometry, traveltime tomography, early arrival tomography, seismic modeling, seismic inversion and migration, data interpolation/extrapolation, and shallow application of resistivity and GPR methods. In the last year, he has become more involved in machine learning, especially in the processing and interpretation of seismic and GPR data.

Educational Qualification

  • Ph.D. in Geophysics (Kiel University, Germany – Cairo University, Egypt), 2002.
  • M.S. in Geophysics – Seismic (Cairo University, Egypt), 1996.
  • B.S. In Geophysics (Cairo University, Egypt), 1993.

Research Interests

  • Geophysical field methods
  • Seismic interferometry
  • Traveltime tomography
  • Seismic modeling, seismic inversion, and migration
  • Data interpolation/extrapolation
  • Shallow application of resistivity and GPR methods
  • Machine learning

Selected Publications

  • Zehra Fatima, Mohammed Benaafi, Bassam Tawabini, and Sherif Hanafy, 2026. Experimental-based assessment of managed aquifer recharge with treated wastewater in arid coastal regions. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 144, 104602, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2026.104602.
  • Ayman Al-Lehyani, Hassan A. Eltom, Ammar El-Husseiny, Abdullatif Al-Shuhail, Sherif Hanafy, Michael Kaminski, Mohamed Mahmoud and Paul Edigbue, 2026. Assessing the effect of sample size on laboratory acoustic velocity measurements of bioturbated carbonate rocks of Hanifa Formation, Saudi Arabia. Carbonates Evaporites 41, 88 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13146-026-01286-2.
  • Yazeed M. Alqahtani and Sherif M. Hanafy, 2026. Surface-Wave Inversion and Seismic Refraction Analysis for Near-Surface Characterization in Khamis Mushait, Southwestern Saudi Arabia. Accepted for publication at JURI.
  • Mohammed Alamoudi and Sherif M. Hanafy, 2026. Evaluation of GPR Processing Workflows for Fracture Detection in Limestone of the Rus Formation, KFUPM Campus, Saudi Arabia. Accepted for publication at JURI.
  • Kellal, Sara, Ammar ElHusseiny, Nandito Davy, Amjed Mohamed, Sherif Hanafy, 2026. Machine Learning-Driven Permeability Prediction in Carbonates and Sandstones Using NMR Relaxation Data. Artificial Intelligence in Geosciences, 7 (1), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aiig.2026.100193.
  • Hanafy, S. M., 2026. Extrapolation of seismic land streamer data using interferometry. Scientific Reports, 16, 5531 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-35328-5
  • Eleslambouly, Ahmed, Mohammed Y. Ali, Fateh Bouchaala, Ammar El-Husseiny, Abdullatif Al-Shuhail, Sherif M. Hanafy, and Jun Matsushima, 2025. Seismic Characterization of Inland and Coastal Sabkhas Using VP, VS, Seismic Anisotropy, and Attenuation. Scientific Reports, Vol. 15, Article number: 44623 (2025
  • Ahmad, Naveed, Sikandar Khan, Gulzar Alam, and Sherif Hanafy, 2025. Data Quality Aware Deep Learning for Reliable Seismic Event Detection. IEEE Access, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3637726.
  • Hanafy, S. M., 2025. Integrated Seismic and Resistivity Imaging Reassesses the Existence of the Qadimah Fault Near the Red Sea Shoreline. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-025-10696-8.
  • Jing Li, Rong Hu, Chunyu Ding, Hui Liu, Jianqing Feng, and Sherif Hanafy, 2025. Shallow multi‐layered structures within the lunar regolith observed by the Chang’e‐5 radar. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 130, e2024JE008509. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JE008509
  • Eleslambouly, A., M. Y. Ali, A. El-Husseiny, A. A. Al-Shuhail, F. Bouchalaa, S. M. Hanafy, and J. Matsushima, 2025. Seismic Properties of Coastal and Inland Sabkhas: Implications for Static Corrections. Earth and Space Science, 12,e2024EA003813. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EA003813.
  • Schuster, Gerard T., Sherif Hanafy, Brian McPherson, and Shihang Feng, 2025. Efficient CO2 Monitoring by Parsimonious Refraction Interferometry. Geophysics, 90 (5), https://doi.org/10.1190/geo2024-0473.1.
  • Kalinichenko, O., L. Eisner, F. Stanek, U. Bin Waheed, S. Hanafy, and Z. Jechumtálová, 2025. Signal-to-Noise Ratio Models for Shallow Borehole Seismic Monitoring, Seismol. Res. Lett. XX, 1–13, doi: 10.1785/0220250030.
  • Simeonova G., L. Eisner, U. bin Waheed, A. Savvaidis, S. Hanafy, 2025. S-wave velocity model of Texas based on joint inversion of interferometry and P-wave receiver functions. Geophysical Prospecting, DOI:10.1111/1365-2478.70035.
  • Edigbue, P., A. Al Shuhail, and S. Hanafy, 2025. Seismic Event Detection and First Arrival Picking using Continuous Wavelet Transform and Machine Learning Techniques. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering (AJSE), 51, 1913-1926, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-025-10121-0.
  • Makki, K. Y., P. Edigbue, A. Al-Shuhail, and S. Hanafy, 2025. Investigation of the tilted transverse isotropy of P-wave velocity in dunes in eastern Saudi Arabia. Geophysics, 90 (3), https://doi.org/10.1190/geo2024-0136.1.
  • Alfuraidan, M. R., A. A. Al-Shuhail, S. M. Hanafy, and I. O. Sarumi, 2025. Enhancing the Accuracy of Seismic Velocity in Near-surface Layers through Laplacian Spectra Analysis of Weighted Graphs. Accepted at Scientific Reports.
  • Muhammad, A., Edigbue, P., Hanafy, S. et al. Accurate velocity estimation from surface-consistent residual statics. Sci Rep 15, 34916 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-18730-3

Extended Publications (+)

  • Edigbue, P. I., Hammed Oyekan, Abdullatif Al-Shuhail, and Sherif Hanafy, 2024. Hybrid Optimization for DC Resistivity Imaging via Intelligible-in-time Logic and the Interior Point Method. Scientific Reports, 14 (1), DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-78744-1 .
  • Yu, H., Li, J., Hanafy, S., and Liu, L., 2024. A collocated inversion of sources and early arrival waveforms for credible tomograms: Synthetic and field data examples. Near Surface Geophysics, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/nsg.12312
  • Hanafy, S. M. and M. Benaafi, 2024. Investigating seawater intrusion and salinization using the integration of hydrochemical and geoelectrical techniques. Geophysics, 89, Issue 5.
  • Qiao, H., Y. Zhou, S. M. Hanafy, C. Liu, 2024. Iterative Interferometric Denoising Filter for Traveltime Picking. Applied Sciences, 14 (2), 733
  • Li, Jing, Chang Zhang, Sherif Hanafy, Han Yu, and Lige Bai, 2024. Joint wave-equation inversion of Rayleigh and Love dispersion curves. Geophysics, 89: R155-R167, https://doi.org/10.1190/geo2023-0070.1.
  • Zhou, W. and S. M. Hanafy, 2024. Acoustic full waveform inversion on land surveys: A case study on the Qademah fault, Saudi Arabia. Geophysics, 89,
  • Awais, Muhammad, Sherif Hanafy, Saifullah Shafiq, Abdullatif Al-Shuhail, and Umair Waheed, 2023. First Break Traveltime Picking Using Unsupervised Machine Learning and Super-virtual Refraction Interferometry. Earth and Space Science, 10 (12), https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EA003014.
  • Yicheng Zhou and Sherif Hanafy, 2023. Waveform Parsimonious Refraction Interferometry. IEEE Transaction on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 61, 2023 5921110.
  • Saraih Nabil A., Hassan A. Eltom, Robert H. Goldstein, Scott A. Whattam, Ammar El-Husseiny, Sherif Hanafy, John Humphrey, 2023. Bioturbated strata in the Upper Cretaceous Aruma Formation, central Saudi Arabia: An analog for aquifers and hydrocarbon reservoirs with large burrows. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 157, 106489, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2023.106489.
  • Li, Huijian, Bo Liu , Xu Liu , Abdullatif A. Al-Shuhail , Sherif M. H. Mahmoud, and Yangkang Chen, 2023. Frequency-Independent Centroid Frequency Shift Method for Signal Attenuation Estimation. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (TGRS), Vol. 61, 4504212, DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2023.3293645.
  • Edigbue, P., Irfan Akca, Ismail Demirci, Abdullatif Al-Shuhail, Hamdan Ali Hamdan, Panagiotis Kirmizakis, Emin Candansayar, Sherif Hanafy, Pantelis Soupios, 2023. Testing different stochastic methods to model direct current resistivity and seismic refraction geophysical data using a combined local and global optimization algorithm. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, Vol. 48, P. 7925–7938, DOI: 10.1007/s13369-023-07690-3.
  • Alfuraidan, M. R., A. Al-Shuhail, S. M. Hanafy, and I. O. Sarumi, 2023. Approximation of Seismic Velocities from the Spectrum of Weighted Graphs. GEM – International Journal on Geomathematics, Vol. 14, DOI: 10.1007/s13137-023-00214-z.
  • Hanafy, S.M., 2022. President’s Page: The geophysical landscape in the Middle East. The Leading Edge, 41(5), https://doi.org/10.1190/tle41050292.1
  • Hanafy, S.M., Al-Mashhor, A., and Al-Shuhail, A.A., 2022. Removal of Intra-Array Statics in Seismic Arrays Due to Variable Topography and Positioning Errors. Applied Sciences 2022, 12, 12810. https://doi.org/10.3390/app122412810
  • Paul Edigbue, Ismail Demirci, Irfan Akca, Hamdan Ali Hamdan, Panagiotis Kirmizakis, Pantelis Soupios, Emin Candansayar, Sherif Hanafy, Abdullatif Al-Shuhail, 2022. A comprehensive study of local, global, and combined optimization methods on synthetic seismic refraction and direct current resistivity data. Applied Sciences, 12, 11589. https://doi.org/10.3390/app122211589.
  • Paul Edigbue, Ismail Demirci, Irfan Akca, Hamdan Hamdan, Panagiotis Kirmizakis, Pantelis Soupios, Markos Tranos, Israa S. Abu-Mahfouz, Emin Candansayar, Sherif Hanafy, Abdullatif Al-Shuhail, 2022. Application of combined local and global optimization algorithms in the inversion of Direct Current Resistivity and Seismic Refraction data: a case study of Dammam Dome, Eastern Saudi Arabia. Sensors 2022, 22, 9337. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22239337
  • Yu, H., S. M. Hanafy, and L. Liu, 2022. A Weighted Closure-Phase Statics Correction Method: Synthetic and Field Data Examples. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (TGRS), Vol. 60, DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2022.3169519.
  • Hanafy S. M., 2022. Land-Streamer vs. Conventional Seismic Data for High-Resolution Near-Surface Surveys. Applied Sciences, 12, 584., p. 1-15, https://doi.org/10.3390/app12020584.
  • Ramdani, A., P. Khanna, G. Gairola, S. Hanafy, and V. Vahrenkamp, 2022. Assessing and Processing 3D Photogrammetry, Sedimentology and Geophysical Data to Build High-fidelity Reservoir Models Based on Carbonate Outcrop Analogs. AAPG Bulletin, 106 (10), pp. 1975–2011, https://doi.org/10.1306/05152221092.

Awards & Honors

  • 2020 – 2023 Elected “Director at Large” member at the board of directors, SEG
  • 2019 – 2020: District 10 representative at the SEG
  • 2017: The SEG Honorary Lecturer in the Middle East and Africa.
  • 2015 – Present: Associate editor at the SEG (Geophysics).
  • 2013 – Present: Member of the “Continuing Education Committee” at the SEG.
  • 2013 – 2015: Special editor at the SEG.
  • 2013 & 2015: Member of the organizing committee of the 1st (2013) and 2nd (2015) SEG/DGS workshop at Bahrain “Near Surface Modeling and Imaging”.
  • 2012 – 2016: Key contact of the “Seismic Theory” sessions at the SEG annual meetings.
  • 2010: Co-founder of the CSIM, KAUST.
  • 2005: Founder and Advisor (until 2007) of the SEG Cairo University Student Chapter.
  • 2004 – 2005: Fulbright scholarship.
  • 2004: Best paper at the 2004 EGS meeting (Abdelhady, Morsy, and Hanafy).
  • 2004: Best presentation at the 2004 EGS meeting (Abdelhady, Hanafy, and Morsy).
  • 1999 – 2002: Ph.D. scholarship, DAAD, Germany.
X