the department of geophysics was founded in 1975 and cultivated more than 1000 students to become professional talents in the field of geophysics. there are 1 master"s degree authorization of first-level discipline on geophysics and 1 doctoral degree authorization on earth interior physics. in 2007, the china"s earthquake administration signed the agreement with yunnan university and launched the comprehensive cooperation in order to meet the demand for talents. additionally, the institute of geology and geophysics, cas and academician liu guangding foundation together set up the geophysics motivational scholarship (later changed into geo-science climbing scholarship) and liu guangding geophysics scholarship. in 2015, the kunming southern geophysical company set up the southern geophysical scholarship aiming at motivating undergraduates who want to engage in the field of geophysics. teaching staff: at present, there are 17 faculty members in the department, 5 professors, 3 associate professors, 9 doctors (3 phd candidates), and 4 overseas returned intellectuals. 2 of them are yunnan provincial young academic leaders while 1 of them is selected to be the backup talent of young academic leaders. disciplinary characteristics: geophysics is a comprehensive discipline that researches into the movement, physical state, material composition, forces and other physical processes of earth circles from the perspective of physics and mathematics. this discipline requires solid foundation for physics and mathematics and abundant knowledge for geophysics, which contributes to building the ability of the operational work and scientific researches. research overview: since 2008, faculty members of the department have undertook 17 research projects supported by the national natural science foundation of china (nsfc)(one of them is the core project), 8 research projects supported by yunnan natural science foundation, 1 subtopic in a “973” program and 2 international cooperation projects. meanwhile, more than 30 high-level academic essays were published in sci publications and ministerial natural science award and technological progress award were given for 5 times. it"s worth mentioning that the department undertook the state key construction projects, namely the test for blasting vibration effect of dachaoshan hydropower station, advance detection of expressway tunnels in yunnan province, construction quality monitoring of railway tunnels, seismic safety evaluation of some construction projects, etc, which promoted the development of the discipline and achieved good social benefits. undergraduate cultivation: the students of this major mainly study basic knowledge and theory in the field of geophysics and accept the training of basic researches, and scientific thinking and scientific experiment in applied basic researches in order to master the basic skills in research and development of earthquake prediction, exploration of deep earth structure, geophysical engineering, energy and exploration of mineral resources. the main courses are as follows. (1)discipline foundation course: advanced math, mechanics, thermology, theoretical mechanics, general geology, electromagnetism, mathematical physics, electrodynamics, elastic mechanics and probability theory and mathematical statistics. (2)professional core courses: seismology, geomagnetism, gravity, geoelectricity, fundamentals for computational geophysics, seismic digital signal processing, regional tectonics. (3)professional elective: fundamentals for geophysical inversion, rocky mechanics, principles of seismic prospecting, geothermology, introduction to comparative planetary magnetic field. main practical teaching process are geological knowledge practice, geophysical practice, geomagnetic observation, seismic observation and data processing and training for scientific researches. in recent years, 40%-50% of the graduates succeeded in matriculation to peking university, university of science and technology of china, institute of geology and geophysics, cas, institute of geophysics, china earthquake administration, institute of geology, china earthquake administration, etc. the employed graduates mainly engaged in the provincial seismological bureau, research institutions, universities, and departments of petroleum and engineering exploration. laboratory construction: the department owns 4 professional laboratories, including seismological laboratory, gravitational laboratory, geomagnetic and geoelectric laboratory, and rocky mechanical laboratory. the laboratories are equipped with broadband digital seismograph, engineering seismograph, cg5 gravimeter with micro-gamma precision, proton magnetometer, fluxgate magnetometer, ctm-di(a) magnetometer, magnetic declinometer, magnetic inclinometer, magnetic detector, magnetotelluric sounding meter, magnetic susceptibility meter, em3w transient electromagnetism, high density resistivity measurement system, multi-functional digital dc induction meter, etc, which shows good experimental conditions.
 fig.1. main practice base, deep well in west yunnan earthquake prediction experimental field, china earthquake administration.
 fig.2. students learning water chemical experiments.
 fig.3. students analyzing the small aperture network to obtain real-time monitoring data.
 fig.4. students learning about the cave where the seismograph is placed
 fig.5. teachers in the department of geophysics inspecting the 2008 wenchuan earthquake site |
