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

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

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 System Engineering

Errol has an MSc in Physics and Electronics from Rhodes University (South Africa). He joined ISSI in 1991 after over 10 years in the military electronics field. He has worked on the engineering side of the ISS product range, with a strong focus on embedded software development. He has extensive experience commissioning and installing ISS systems worldwide. Consequently, Errol has a wealth of experience in planning and supporting mine seismic monitoring systems and their integration with other geotechnical systems at customer sites.

Director and Head of Technical Services

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

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

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 (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 General Manager of IMS Canada

In 2003 Daryl received his PhD in Applied Nuclear 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 take up his current position within IMS.

Manager and Head of Seismological Services (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.

Manager and Head of Seismic Data Processing

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.

Manager and Head of Technical Services (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 detail 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.