Dr. Allan Haas
Allan’s Snapshot
Title: R&D – Principal Engineering Geophysicist
Degree: Ph.D. in Geophysics
University: Colorado School of Mines
HGI Start Date: 2014
Home Office: Richland, Washington
Specialty: Electrical methods, subsurface flow, fracture flow
Escape Activities: Hiking, camping, exploring
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Dr. Allan Haas is currently a Principal Engineering Geophysicist at hydroGEOPHYSICS, Inc. His work at hydroGEOPHYSICS focuses on R&D activities for HGI. Various research topics include tank leak detection, pond Leak Detection, Leak Localization, self-potential methods, fracture imaging, dam leak detection related modeling, and data acquisition system development. Allan also has several publications in the field of geophysics concerning leak detection, localization, and seismoelectric phenomenon. During his Ph.D. research, Allan investigated the measurable electrical signals associated with leakages in wells, and fluid flow related to hydraulic fracturing, and subsurface fracture flow.
Over the past 25 years, Allan has been involved in a wide variety of research and development activities spanning three different technology paths. Path one was military sonar technology, path two was visible, and infrared imaging technology for ground and space-based astronomy, and path three is geophysics. Interestingly, both paths one and two are relevant to geophysics in numerous ways.
After researching passive fiber-optic and active sonar systems for several years, Allan became involved in geophysics for the first time in 1995. In 1995, Allan successfully lead an effort to deploy, for the first time, a high channel capacity hydrophone array into a test borehole at the Chevron Technology Research Center in La Habra, CA, to investigate high hydrophone channel count cross-well seismic performance. Between 1998 and 2007, Allan developed innovative, high technology solutions for space-qualified, cryogenic, infrared image sensor packaging for Hubble Space Telescope, Deep Impact, New Horizons, and other spacecraft. Eventually, Allan decided to pursue advanced degrees in geophysics. While in graduate school, Allan worked for BP and Conoco Phillips petroleum companies as a summer intern. At Conoco, Allan exclusively researched alternate geophysical methods for hydraulic fracture imaging. The Conoco research ultimately led to his Ph.D. dissertation. Over the past several years, Allan has been developing innovative solutions to technical problems HGI encounters. In 2015, Allan and his prominent coauthors published a book on the seismoelectric phenomenon.
Allan enjoys technically challenging opportunities that do not fit the normal paradigm of geophysical problems. Allan enjoys developing technology and eventually taking it out into the field for deployment and testing. Allan has successfully used Comsol Multiphysics to model several different types of geophysical problems, leading to new insights about old geophysical methods, and new geophysical concepts. Allan also uses Matlab as a tool to model and develop new signal processing techniques. Allan is currently a member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Allan earned a Ph.D. in Geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines, in December 2013, a Master of Science in Geophysics at Colorado School of Mines in May 2010, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Arizona in May of 1987.
Allan at work:
