Bharath Shekar

Contact Department of Earth Sciences Phone: +91-912-009-1979

Information IIT Bombay, Powai E-mail: bshekar@iitb.ac.in
Mumbai - 76, India https://www.geos.iitb.ac.in/index.php/bs

Research Seismic imaging and inverse problems, Near-surface imaging

interests Ray theory, Passive seismology, Machine learning

Academic IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India

Experience Department of Earth Sciences
Associate Professor 2022 - present
Assistant Professor 2017 - 2022
Assistant Professor (On Contract) 2014 - 2017

Education Center for Wave Phenomena, Colorado School of Mines, USA

Ph.D. in Geophysics 2008 - 2013

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India

Integrated MSc, Exploration Geophysics 2003 - 2008

Funded research • Application of machine learning to near surface imaging by ground penetrating radar (GPR),
with Department of Science and Technology ( DST) India.
Role: P.I. 2019 - 2023
• Ambient noise interferometry and passive seismic monitoring, with Oil and Natural Gas Corpo-
ration Limited (ONGC ) India.
Role: co-P.I. 2016 - 2019
• Seismic imaging and the determination of the imaging velocities using tomographic techniques,
with Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre, IIT Bombay, India.
Role: P.I. 2014 - 2017

Laboratory setup • Manage a 60 core linux cluster set up with IRCC seed grant. Role: P.I.
• Run and maintain 48 channel GEODE seismic recorder and a hydraulic weight drop acquired
with IIT Bombay funding. Role: P.I.

Journal & 1. Datta A., B. Shekar and P. L. Kumar, 2023, Acoustic full waveform inversion for 2-D ambient
Conference noise source imaging: Geophysical Journal International, 234 (3), 1628–1639.
Publications
2. Nawal M., B. Shekar and P. Jaiswal, 2023, Integration of sparse and continuous datasets using
machine learning for core mineralogy interpretation: The Leading Edge, 42, no.6, 421-432.
3. Shekar B., G. Mohan and S. K. Singh, 2023, Structural information derived from ambient
noise tomography over a hydrocarbon-producing region in the Cachar fold belt, lower Assam,
northeast India: Geophysical Prospecting, 71 (1), 140-162.
4. Kumar, N., B. Shekar and S. Singh, 2022, A nodal integral scheme for acoustic wave field
simulation: Pure and Applied Geophysics, 179, 3677-3691.
5. Nawal, M., S. Kumar and B. Shekar, 2022, LithoBot: An AutoML approach to identify
lithofacies: Second International Meeting for Applied Geoscience & Energy, 1885-1889.
6. Vashisth, D., B. Shekar and S. Srivastava, 2022, Joint inversion of Rayleigh wave fundamen-
tal and higher order mode phase velocity dispersion curves using multi-objective grey wolf
optimization: Geophysical Prospecting, 70, no. 3, 479-501.
 7. Kuldeep, B. Shekar, G. Mohan and S. K. Singh, 2022, Assessment of seismic vulnerability
using the ambient noise recordings in Cachar fold belt, Assam: Journal of the Geological
Society of India, 98, no. 6, 795-804.
8. Kuldeep, and B. Shekar, 2021, Full waveform inversion with random shot selection using
adaptive gradient descent: Journal of Earth System Sciences, 130 (4), 1-13.
9. B. Shekar, G. Mohan, N. Dhabaria and S. K. Singh, 2020, Near surface S-wave velocity
structure deduced from ambient noise interferometry applied to a passive seismic dataset from
Assam, Northeast India: 13th Biennial International Conference and Exhibition, SPG India.
10. B. Shekar, and H. Sethi, 2019, Full-waveform inversion for microseismic events using sparsity
constraints: Geophysics, 84, no. 2, KS1-KS12.
11. Vashisth, D., and B. Shekar, 2019, Inversion of Rayleigh-Wave Phase and Group Velocity
Dispersion Curves for S-Wave Velocity by Grey Wolf Optimization: EAGE expanded abstracts.
12. Shekar, B., and D. Nanda, 2018, Seismic spectral decomposition using pseudo-smoothed
Wigner-Ville distribution: EAGE expanded abstracts.
13. Sethi, H., and B. Shekar, 2017, Full waveform Inversion for microseismic events using sparsity
constraints: 87th Annual International Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 2574-2579
14. Shekar, B., and A. Nath, 2015, Gradient computation for simultaneous microseismic event
location and velocity inversion by eikonal tomography: 85th Annual International Meeting,
SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 2604-2609
15. Shekar, B., and I. Tsvankin, 2014, Point-source radiation in attenuative anisotropic me-
dia: Geophysics, 79, no.5, WB51-WB61. ( featured in (2014) “Geophysics bright spots”, The
Leading Edge 33:1162-1162 )
16. Shekar, B., and I. Tsvankin, 2014, Kirchhoff modeling for attenuative anisotropic media using
Gaussian beams: Geophysics, 79, no.5, WB25-34.
17. Behm, M., and B. Shekar, 2014, Blind deconvolution of multichannel recordings by linearized
inversion in the spectral domain: Geophysics, 79, no.2, V33-V45. (featured in (2014) “Geo-
physics bright spots”, The Leading Edge 33:336-336 )
18. Shekar, B., and I. Tsvankin, 2013, Kirchhoff modeling for attenuative anisotropic media:
83rd Annual International Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 3406-3410
19. Shekar, B., and I. Tsvankin, 2012, Anisotropic attenuation analysis of crosshole data gener-
ated during hydraulic fracturing: The Leading Edge, 31, no.5, 580-587.
20. Shekar, B., and I. Tsvankin, 2012, Attenuation analysis for heterogeneous transversely
isotropic media: 82nd Annual International Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 1-6
21. Shekar, B., and I. Tsvankin, 2011, Anisotropic attenuation analysis of a cross-hole data set:
81st Annual International Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 474-478
22. Shekar, B., and I. Tsvankin, 2011, Estimation of shear-wave interval attenuation from mode-
converted data: Geophysics, 76, no.6, D11-D19.
23. Shekar, B., and I. Tsvankin, 2010, Estimation of shear-wave interval attenuation from mode-
converted data: 80th Annual International Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 187-191.

Industrial ConocoPhillips, Houston, USA June 2012 - August 2012

Experience ExxonMobil Upstream Research, Houston, USA May 2011 - August 2011
Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai, India May 2007 - June 2007

Dissertation Ph.D : 2 completed, 2 ongoing

guidance M.Tech: 5 completed, 2 ongoing
M.Sc: 14 completed
Teaching Seismic data processing
Seismic wave propagation and imaging
Inverse problems in Geophysics
Global Geophysics

Awards Excellence in Teaching, 2022, Department of Earth Sciences, IIT Bombay

Best reviewer award, 2021, Journal of Earth System Sciences
Young faculty award, IIT Bombay
Institute blue in technology, IIT Kharagpur

Professional Reviewer: Geophysics, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Studia Geophysica et
Service Geodaetica, Journal of Applied Geophysics, Pure and Applied Geophysics, Earth and Space
Science, Journal of Earth System Sciences
Member, SEG membership committee 2016-17