Chairman and Head of Research

In 1981 Aleksander obtained his PhD in seismology from the Silesian University of Technology (Poland), where he worked as an Assistant Professor. In 1985 he took up the position of Head of the Seismology at Anglo American plc in South Africa. In 1991 he was appointed the Managing Director and Head of Research at ISS International Limited (ISSI) and, in 1994, also the Managing Director of ISS Pacific (ISSP). In 2010 he founded the Institute of Mine Seismology in South Africa and Australia. IMS acquired both ISSI and ISSP and Aleksander became its Chairman and Head of Research.

His main areas of expertise are monitoring seismic rock mass response to mining, quantification of seismic sources and near-source ground motion, deterministic and probabilistic seismic hazard assessment in mines, and the application of quantitative seismology to rock mass stability. He is the main author and editor of Seismic Monitoring in Mines, (Chapman and Hall, London, 1997).

Managing Director and Head of Computational Seismology – IMS Australia

Ernest has a PhD in Mathematics from University of Stellenbosch (South Africa), focusing on the study of towers of algebraic function fields. In 2006 he joined ISSI, starting on location problems, using ray-tracing to perform cave-front tracking. He since took over the development of the seismological processing software, developed it as an extensible platform for providing seismological services, and worked on seismic source characterisation.

As part of the Research and Development Programme, he has written kinematic modelling software, worked on seismic source directivity characterisation, and enjoys developing massively parallel codes to solve computationally hard problems.

Since moving to Australia in 2012, Ernest has been working on next-generation seismological processing and visualisation software, and envisages extracting more useful information from seismic data in a routine manner than the classical models allow for, in particular with respect to exploiting continuous data and directivity effects. He is currently looking at short-term hazards and ground-motion hazards.

Director and Head of Applied Seismology – IMS Australia

Dmitriy has a PhD in Physics and Mathematical Science from the Institute of Physics of the Earth (Moscow, Russia). From 2000 until 2009 he worked at the Mining Institute (Perm, Russia) and was involved in regional seismic monitoring, local seismic observations in potash mines and karst caves, and engineering seismology projects. In 2009 he joined ISSI (South Africa), which later became the Institute of Mine Seismology (South Africa, Australia and Canada). He is responsible for seismological services for mines (processing and interpretation of seismicity, investigation of large or damaging seismic events) and is involved in research projects in mine seismology.

Dmitriy is interested in inferring information about seismic sources from seismic signals, the integration of seismic monitoring data with stress modelling, and the assessment of seismic and ground motion hazards associated with planned mining.

Director and Head of Technical Services – IMS Australia

Frans has an NDIP in Electrical Engineering (Light Current) from the Central University of Technology (South Africa). In 1999 he started working for ISSI, taking responsibility for installations and maintenance of the seismic systems installed in South Africa. In 2002 he was deployed as Manager of ISSP (Australia). He served in that position until the end of 2007. Upon relocating back to South Africa, he managed the Technical Services departments for both ISSI and ISSP.
In 2011 he moved back to Australia, managing both our Technical Services department and IMS’s local Production Facility from our Huntingfield office.

Director and Head of System Development – IMS Australia

Gareth obtained his MSc in Electronic Engineering from the University of Cape Town (South Africa). He has a background in mixed-signal electronics; instrumentation and control; signal processing; and intelligent systems.
In 2006 he started working at ISSI as System Engineer, Developer before progressing to Manager. His core focus areas in this position were: analogue and digital hardware design; embedded systems and industrial communications; and telemetry. Gareth has led the development of the IMS seismic monitoring system since its inception in 2010.

In 2016 Gareth started his PhD candidature at the University of Tasmania. His research focuses on signal processing techniques, specifically relating to active seismic monitoring.

Director and Head of Finance – IMS Africa

Kobus has a B.Com Hon in Economics from the University of the Orange Free State (South Africa). He has been with ISSI since 1990, first heading the Finance and Administration Department. Since 1994 he has also been responsible for Finance and Administration of ISSP. He fulfils the same role in the Institute of Mine Seismology. His responsibilities include the Finance, HR and Legal aspects of the business.

Business Development Manager – IMS Africa

In 1990 Olaf obtained his MSc in Geophysics from the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa). He then joined the Chamber of Mines Research Organisation (COMRO). During his 16-year career at COMRO (and later CSIR Miningtek) he became involved in a number of geophysics, mining and rock mechanics-related research projects. His primary interest was seismology, developing his expertise in mine seismic monitoring.
Olaf honed his commercial skills during his five years at Snowden Mining Industry Consultants in Johannesburg. In 2011 he joined IMS as the Business Development Manager. His responsibilities include developing IMS’s client base in Africa and providing routine seismological services to customers in Africa.

Director and Head of Seismological Services – IMS Africa

Jacques has an MSc in Applied Physics from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (South Africa). Since joining IMS in 2012, he has been involved in various research projects focusing on assimilation of seismic data with numerical rock-mass modelling. He currently manages Seismological Services in South Africa and is involved in providing routine seismological services to the gold industry.

Director and Head of Seismic Data Processing – IMS Africa

Cornel has an PhD in Physical and Mathematical Analysis from the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa). He got his start at ISSI in 2005, focusing primarily on seismic hazard and various location techniques. He also has experience working on the statistical aspects employed in the data processing department. Since 2012 Cornel has been working intensively on the automatic processing of waveforms. He currently manages the global data processing service.

Director and Head of Technical Services – IMS Africa

Dolf obtained his MSc degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa), where he focussed on control systems, mathematical modelling of systems, and embedded systems.
He joined ISSI in 2006 as part of the System Engineering team, applying his interests in modern communication technologies, as well as digital and analogue electronics. He was involved in high-level and detailed design of hardware and firmware for the IMS seismic data acquisition and supporting systems. Since 2014, Dolf has been responsible for IMS Africa’s Manufacturing and Technical Services division.

Managing Director – IMS Canada

Daryl received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). In 2005 he joined ISSI in South Africa, managing the local Seismological Services team. During this time he undertook studies involving seismicity in caving and open-pit environments.
Between 2009 and 2014, Daryl was involved in hazard assessment studies for deep gold mines in South Africa, as well as research projects developing methods of improving short-term hazard assessments. Daryl moved to Canada in 2015 to expand the business in North America. His responsibilities still include interpretation of mine seismic data, although his time in Canada has extended his insights into seismic monitoring systems.

Director and Head of Technical Services – IMS Canada

Thomas has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the Queensland University of Technology (Australia) and a professional background in Systems Engineering. In 2018 he started working with IMS Australia as a System Engineer and most recently has relocated to IMS Canada to assist with the expansion of IMS’s presence in the Americas.
Thomas is detail oriented and focuses on the optimization and improvement of IMS products and services, he enjoys working with customers to understand the foundation of their requirements with a view to offering the most appropriate solutions.

Director and Head of Seismology – IMS Canada

Stephen has an MSc in Space Physics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Tasmania (Australia), looking at using unsupervised machine learning and clustering algorithms to manage and utilize large seismic datasets. He joined IMS South Africa in 2011 and moved to IMS Australia in 2012. In 2021 he moved to IMS Canada to expand the presence of IMS in the Americas, providing seismological support and services to customers there.

Stephen is interested in the application and utility of seismic source mechanisms in a mining environment, the classification of waveforms and seismic sources, and optimizing the use of large seismic datasets.

Director and Business Development lead for Latin America – IMS Canada

Frank holds a Ph.D. in Seismology and post-graduate studies in Earth System Physics. He shares a passion for providing the best quality of seismic monitoring services to mines around the world with his colleagues. Frank’s focus has been and is on developing the Latin American market. Frank is able to communicate well with Spanish, Portuguese, and English-speaking customers. He is interested in helping mines better understand how damage relates to seismicity and how seismic monitoring can be a powerful tool for geotechnical engineers.