Jack (Xun) Li | Geophysicist

About

I am a geophysicist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh. My work focuses on laboratory seismic and acoustic experiments that reveal how rocks deform, fracture, fail, and recover in geothermal and other subsurface-energy systems.

I am especially interested in the tools that make experiments interpretable: real-time monitoring, acoustic-emission detection, coda-wave analysis, numerical modelling, and data systems that can keep up with large laboratory and field-style data sets.

Laboratory rock deformation and fracture experiments for geothermal reservoirs and induced seismicity.
Triaxial experiments combining ultrasonic monitoring, acoustic emissions, microseismicity, and synchrotron X-ray imaging.
Software for real-time velocity monitoring, event detection, fracture-process analysis, and experimental data management.
Numerical modelling and digital-twin simulations of seismic and acoustic wave propagation in laboratory-scale systems.

Education

PhD in Geophysics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Thesis: Elastic immersive wave experimentation (2018-2022).
MSc in Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines, United States. Thesis: A unified interpretation of nonlinear elasticity in granular solids (2016-2018).
BSc (Hons) in Geophysics, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (2014-2016).
BSc in Geology, Nanjing University, China (2012-2014).

Research

Immersive Wave Experimentation

Mixed-reality acoustics that makes a small laboratory behave as if it were open, with applications in cloaking, holography, and acoustic cloning in controlled experiments.

Three-dimensional induced seismicity cloud at the Rosemanowes geothermal site

Induced Seismicity at Rosemanowes

Analysis of more than 5,000 microearthquakes at the Rosemanowes geothermal test site, with a focus on pressure diffusion, fracture networks, and aseismic deformation.

Nonlinear elasticity and resonance curves in rocks

Nonlinear Elasticity in Resonance Experiments

Laboratory resonance experiments and contact-based modelling of nonlinear elasticity, slow dynamics, hysteresis, and recovery in granular rocks.

Immersive Wavefield Modelling

Local-domain wave simulation methods that preserve the influence of the surrounding model without recomputing the full wavefield every time.

$Active seismic monitoring geometry for hydraulic fracturing$

Active Seismic Monitoring of Hydraulic Fracturing

Active-source seismic monitoring and coda-wave interferometry for tracking fracture opening, stiffness change, and recovery after injection.

Code

CodaWaveSolver is a Python-C++ solver for estimating phase shifts with the stretching technique in repeated active-source experiments and ambient-noise studies.

Publications

Smith, J.-A., Mangriotis, M.-D., Curtis, A., Li, X., Cartwright-Taylor, A., Main, I. G., and Butler, I. B. P- and S-wave speed evolution during rock deformation from coda wave interferometry and energy partitioning inversion, Geophysical Journal International, 245(3), ggag145, 2026.
Li, X., Robertsson, J., and van Manen, D.-J. Elastic immersive wave experimentation, Geophysical Journal International, 2023.
Muller, J., Becker, T. S., Li, X., Aichele, J., Serra-Garcia, M., Robertsson, J. O. A., and van Manen, D.-J. Acoustic cloning, Physical Review Applied, 2023.
Li, X., Robertsson, J., Curtis, A., and van Manen, D.-J. Internal absorbing boundary conditions for closed-aperture wavefield decomposition in solid media with unknown interiors, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2022.
Li, X., Koene, E., van Manen, D.-J., Robertsson, J., and Curtis, A. Elastic immersive wavefield modelling, Journal of Computational Physics, 2022.
Li, X., Becker, T., Ravasi, M., Robertsson, J., and van Manen, D.-J. Closed-aperture unbounded acoustics experimentation using multidimensional deconvolution, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2021.
Becker, T. S., van Manen, D.-J., Haag, T., Barlocher, C., Li, X., Borsing, N., Curtis, A., Serra-Garcia, M., and Robertsson, J. Broadband acoustic invisibility and illusions, Science Advances, 2021.
van Manen, D.-J., Li, X. (corresponding author), Vasmel, R., Broggini, F., and Robertsson, J. Exact extrapolation and immersive modelling with finite-difference injection, Geophysical Journal International, 2020.
Li, X., Robertsson, J., Curtis, A., and van Manen, D.-J. Compensating for source directivity in immersive wave experimentation, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2019.
Sens-Schonfelder, C., Snieder, R., and Li, X. A model for nonlinear elasticity in rocks based on internal friction and contact aging, Geophysical Journal International, 2019.
Li, X., Sens-Schonfelder, C., and Snieder, R. Nonlinear elasticity in resonance experiments, Physical Review B, 2018.
Li, X., Main, I., and Jupe, A. Induced seismicity at the UK hot dry rock test site for geothermal energy production, Geophysical Journal International, 2018.

Google Scholar ORCID

Contact

For collaborations in laboratory rock physics, seismic monitoring, wavefield modelling, induced seismicity, or experimental software, please get in touch.

Email lixunjack@gmail.com or connect through LinkedIn.

AI Assistance Declaration

This website was prepared with AI assistance through Codex, evolving over several years from earlier GPT-4-era support to the most recent GPT 5.5 High Learning Mode provided via the Edinburgh Large Language Model service, ELM: https://elm.edina.ac.uk/elm/elm.

AI assistance was used to help interpret, summarise, structure, and clarify website content based on raw materials, research outputs, code, and documentation from my own work, together with online-accessible materials that were checked and verified while building this website. All final content has been reviewed, edited, and approved by me. This website is still in beta testing, so while care has been taken to ensure accuracy, no guarantee is made that all information is complete, current, or 100% error-free.