Planning I/UCRC Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: Center for Advanced Subsurface Earth Resource Models

采矿是现代社会向可持续生存过渡的内在要求。满足全球对地球资源的需求是现代社会面临的重大挑战。先进地下地球资源模型工业-大学合作研究中心是科罗拉多矿业学院、弗吉尼亚理工大学和行业合作伙伴共同努力的成果。该中心的规划会议由该奖项提供支持，重点是开发一种定位、表征和可视化矿藏和其他地球资源的综合方法，以应对这一重大挑战。该中心的知识基础来自科罗拉多矿业学院和弗吉尼亚理工学院的独特跨学科合作，包括将矿物学、地球化学、岩石学、经济地质学和地球物理学等传统地球科学学科的专业知识与时间空间统计学、逆理论、数值方法、高性能计算、地震成像和反演、层析成像和岩石物理的专业知识融合在一起。该中心的活动将改变地球科学数据在勘探和采矿业部门的使用方式，从最初的矿产勘探阶段开始，一直持续到矿山关闭和环境补救。该中心的研究活动将从根本上改变目前全球自然资源勘探和开采的方式，以创新的科学和技术解决方案取代基于行业经验和经验主义的决策，为决策提供信息，增加勘探成功的机会，并降低金融风险。该中心的目标将促进社会经济繁荣，并有助于减少采矿对环境的影响。劳动力发展是中心活动的重要组成部分，将包括研究生和本科生，以及行业员工参与研究活动和培训机会。预计该中心的毕业生将获得知识广度，这些知识将转移到采矿劳动力中，这些专业知识将对即将到来的重塑该行业的转型至关重要。该中心将加强和促进在地球物理、地球化学、矿物学、计算科学和统计学方面的跨学科发现。先进地下地球资源模型中心致力于通过建立产学研合作伙伴关系来推动勘探/采矿行业的发展，该合作伙伴关系开展竞争前研究和劳动力发展计划，使工业、学术和社会受益。该中心的宗旨和长期愿景是针对矿藏三维地下地质模型开发中的研究挑战，特别是在这些模型整合各种地球科学数据、为决策提供信息并将地质风险降至最低的情况下，从定位和开采地下地球资源开始，一直持续到矿山关闭和环境修复。设想了四个研究重点：(1)开发新的地球物理和地球化学仪器、分析和解释方法，以加强对岩石性质的表征；(2)整合、缩放和反演不同空间分辨率和分布的各种地质、岩石物理和地球物理数据类型，以查明和表征地下地球资源；(3)开发信息方法，以减少与决策有关的风险；(4)计算成像和可视化，并开发图形和探索性数据分析解决方案和可视化工具。要实现这一广泛的愿景，需要来自广泛学科的研究人员的合作，包括但不限于经济地质学家、地球物理学家、统计学家和计算数学家。科罗拉多矿业学院和弗吉尼亚理工大学在这些领域的专业知识互补，与行业合作伙伴建立了创新的合作伙伴关系，成立了一个专注于采矿业的中心。关于弗吉尼亚理工大学带来的价值，它有一个庞大而成熟的研究社区，致力于计算成像的开发和应用于应用问题。研究方向包括反演理论、数值方法、高性能计算、地震采集、地震成像和反演、层析成像和岩石物理。此外，弗吉尼亚理工大学拥有全国最大的采矿和矿物工程系，以及全国最强大的反问题社区之一，以及强大的跨学院地震学专业知识。

Mining is intrinsic to modern society's transition to a sustainable existence. Meeting the global demand for earth resources represents a grand challenge for modern society. The Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Subsurface Earth Resource Models is a collaborative effort between Colorado School of Mines, Virginia Tech, and industry partners. The planning meeting for this Center, for which this award provides support, focused on developing an integrated approach to locating, characterizing, and visualizing mineral deposits and other earth resources to meet this grand challenge. The intellectual foundation for this Center stems from the unique cross-disciplinary collaborations that have been assembled at the Colorado School of Mines and Virginia Tech including melding expertise in the traditional geoscience disciplines of mineralogy, geochemistry, petrology, economic geology, and geophysics with those in temporal spatial statistics, inverse theory, numerical methods, high performance computing, seismic imaging and inversion, tomographic imaging, and petrophysics. The Center's activities will transform the way geoscience data are used in the exploration and mining industry sector, beginning with the initial mineral exploratoration stage and continuing through mine closure and environmental remediation. Research activities of the Center will fundamentally change the way global exploration and mining of natural resources is currently done, replacing industry experience- and empiricism-based decisions with innovative science and technology-based solutions that inform decision making, increase the chances of exploration success, and reduce financial risk. The goals of the Center will promote socio-economic prosperity and help to reduce the environmental impact of mining. Workforce development is an essential component of the Center activities and will include graduate and undergraduate students, and industry employee participation in research activities and training opportunities. It is anticipated that graduates of the Center will acquire intellectual breadth that will transfer to the mining workforce and this expertise will be essential for the coming transformations that are reshaping the industry. The Center will strengthen and promote cross-disciplinary discoveries in geophysics, geochemistry, mineralogy, computational science and statistics.The Center for Advanced Subsurface Earth Resource Models is focused on advancing the exploration/mining industry sector through the establishment of a cooperative industry-university-National Science Foundation partnership that conducts pre-competitive research and workforce development programs of benefit to industry, academia, and society. The purpose and long-term vision of this Center is directed toward research challenges in the development of 3-D subsurface geologic models for mineral deposits, particularly as these models integrate diverse geoscience data, to inform decision making and minimize geological risk, beginning with locating and mining subsurface earth resources and continuing through mine closure and environmental remediation. Four research thrusts are envisioned: (1) development of novel geophysical and geochemical instrumentation, analysis and interpretation methods for enhanced characterization of rock properties; (2) integration, scaling, and inversion of diverse geological, petrophysical, and geophysical data types of dissimilar spatial resolution and distribution to identify and characterize subsurface earth resources; (3) development of information methodologies for reducing risk associated with decision making; and (4) computational imaging and visualization and development of graphical and exploratory data analysis solutions and visualization tools. Achieving this broad vision requires collaboration of researchers from a broad range of disciplines, including but not limited to economic geologists, geophysicists, statisticians, and computational mathematicians. Complementary expertise in these areas brings Colorado School of Mines and Virginia Tech together with industry partners in an innovative partnership to form a Center focused on the mining sector. With regard to the value that Virginia Tech brings, it has a large and established community of researchers working on the development and applications of computational imaging to applied problems. Research specialties include inverse theory, numerical methods, high performance computing, seismic acquisition, seismic imaging and inversion, tomographic imaging, and petrophysics. In addition, Virginia Tech is home to the largest Mining and Minerals Engineering Department in the country, as well as one of the strongest inverse problems communities in the nation, and strong cross-college expertise in seismology.