A University of Calgary geophysicist who heads a consortium dedicated to finding new methods of making seismic images of the Earth’s subsurface will deliver the Milton Dobrin Memorial Lecture April 29 at the University of Houston.

Robert R. Stewart will speak about "Searching for Sands: The Multicomponent Seismic Approach" at 6:30 p.m. at the Hilton University of Houston Hotel. A 5:30 p.m. social hour will precede his talk, which will be followed by a reception.

Stewart, professor of geophysics at Calgary, held the chair in exploration geophysics there from 1987-1997. In August 2008, he will join the UH faculty as professor, Cullen Chair and director of the Allied Geophysical Lab.

At Calgary, Stewart is director of the Consortium for Research in Elastic Wave Exploration Seismology (CREWES), a university-industry consortium of 26 companies that conducts advanced research in resource exploration and development.  He also is president of Gennix Technology Corp., a geophysical consulting company.

Stewart graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor of science degree in physics with a minor in mathematics. He completed a Ph.D. in geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His career has included positions with Chevron, Arco and Veritas Software.

He has led geophysical expeditions to study Maya ruins in Central America and impact craters in the Canadian High Arctic as part of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project.

The UH Department of Geosciences and the Geophysical Society of Houston are sponsoring the lecture. The annual event is named for the late Milton Dobrin, a renowned geophysicist who was a member of the UH geosciences faculty prior to his death in 1980.