Professor Stuart Raymond Clark

My Expertise

Plate tectonics, earthquakes, subsidence, sinkhole formation

Keywords

Fields of Research (FoR)

Geodynamics, Seismology and seismic exploration, Gravimetrics, Magnetism and palaeomagnetism, Geomorphology and earth surface processes, Stratigraphy (incl. biostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy and basin analysis), Neural networks, Semi- and unsupervised learning, Geophysics, Basin Analysis, Structural Geology, Stratigraphy (incl. Biostratigraphy and Sequence Stratigraphy), Numerical Computation, Tectonics, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Marine Geoscience

SEO tags

Earth sciences

Mineral Exploration

Hydrogen Storage

Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences

Biography

Stuart Clark obtained his PhD from the University of Sydney in numerical modelling of back-arc basin development in 2007. From 2007-2011, Stuart worked in Simula Research Laboratory and led several petroleum industry-funded R&D projects in plate tectonics and paleogeography. From 2011-2014, Stuart was the Head of Computational Geoscience at Simula Research Laboratory and in 2014 was appointed as Director of Research for a small-medium enterprise software company, Kalkulo AS. In 2017, Stuart returned to Australia as a Senior Lecturer in the Minerals and Energy Resources School at UNSW and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021. In 2024, he moved to Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW and was appointed to the role of Director of Governance for the Faculty of Engineering. In 2025, he was promoted to Professor. Stuart's research interests are in understanding the influence on deep Earth processes on the development of sedimentary basins and the use of machine learning in developing geological models. Stuart has a passion for innovative teaching, learning from others and collaborative research solving real world research problems.

My Grants

Current research grants:

S. Clark (Australian Lead CI), H.P. Bunge (German Lead CI), P. Makuluni, B. Vilacis, E. Babina, Geodynamical Assessments of Subsidence in the North West Shelf in Australia (2024-2025)
N. Khalili; A. Rajabifard; T. Chan; S. Zlatanova; B. Samali; C. Wang; I. Canbulat; H. Ronagh; S. Perera; W. Gao; S. Parameswaran; D. Prasad; C. Sammut; S. Barr; W. Zhang; B. Li; X. Shen; J. Barton; M. Cholette; S. Clark; J. Aryal; S. Raval; L. Ma; B. Shahbodagh; M. Vahab; J. Mathew; H. Gong; C. Holland; Y. Chen; M. Dunkley; S. Coleman; J. Linke; L. Zhao; S. Ghouse; K. Liu; G. Kernich; D. Paull; B. Nicholls; D. Nguyen; L. Liria; F. Gonzalez; T. Clewes-de Castella (2021-2027), ARC Industry Transformation Research Hub for Resilient and Intelligent Infrastructure Systems (RIIS) in Urban, Resources and Energy Sectors
S. Clark, J. Hauser, K. Regenauer-Lieb, T. Salles, H-P. Bunge and J. Lie (2020-2023), Kinematica: Inference-Based Rapid Resource Exploration Scenario Testing. Australian Research Council Linkage
K. Regenauer-Lieb, J. Afonso, S. Clark, S. Walsh, S. Thiel, K. Czarnota, T. Poulet and A. Jones (2019-2022), Illuminating AusLAMP: Thermodynamics inversion for mineral systems, Australian Research Council
S. Clark (2018-2021), 3D Dynamic Sedimentary Basin Reconstructions, Lundin Energy
S. Clark (2018-2021), Basin Reconstructions of the Northwest Shelf of Australia, CSIRO Deep Earth Imaging Future Science Platform

My Qualifications

Graduate Certificate in University Learning and Teaching (University of New South Wales, 2022)
PhD in Geophysics (University of Sydney, 2007)
Master of Arts (University of Melbourne, 2004)
BSc.(Hons)/B. Arts (University of Sydney, 2002)

My Awards

Arc Postgraduate Council's Supervisor Award, 2021
UNSW Vice Chancellor's Teaching Excellence Award (2019) - Rising Star
UNSW Engineering Hero Award (2020)

My Research Activities

Prof. Stuart Clark is a geophysicist with an interest in understanding the evolution of sedimentary basins through imaging and reconstructions of the Earth to better utilise our basins towards sustainable resource use and exploration. In the last 3 years, Stuart has published 19 journal articles (14 in top 10% journals), led an ARC Linkage, a CSIRO project and a German-Australian Collaboration Grant and has supervised 10 PhD and research masters degrees to completion. In 2021, Stuart was awarded the Arc Postgraduate Student Council Award for Supervision Excellence. Current research activities include:

Quantitative sedimentary basin dynamics
Machine learning applied to geophysical and geological data
Numerical simulations of Earth processes, such as subduction and sediment transport.

My Research Supervision

Supervision keywords

computational fluid dynamics

Areas of supervision

I am keen to recruit students in any of the following areas:

Geophysics including potential field and seismology
Tectonophysics and plate tectonics
Geology (Structural, Sedimentology)
Basin Dynamics

Applied to understanding Earth evolution, environmental issues or for minerals exploration. As well topics related to machine learning, numerical modelling and high performance computing applied to geology or geophysics.

Future PhD and Masters Research Students:

For admission, please have a look at the Submit an Application Page on the UNSW web-page using the Program Code 1648 (Geophysics) or 2645 MPhil Engineering (CVENBR - with specialisation in geophysics) - this also applies if much of your research will end up being geological in nature. Your actual topic will be defined by your thesis title and your Field of Research code attached to your project. I am also happy to jointly supervise students in other UNSW Schools, Faculties or in other universities.

Currently supervising

I am currently supervising the following students:

Harikrishnan Nalinakumar - Basin Evolution and Resource Potential of the Isa Superbasin and South Nicholson Basin
Elena Babina - The Influence of Dynamic Topography on the Formation and Evolution of the Barents Sea Basin with Computational Methods
Aseem Bin Sulaiman - Exploration for Salt domes Using Gravity and Seismic Data
Lisa Tannock - Fracture Mechanics in Basement Rocks

My recent higher degree research completions include:

Peigen Luo - Slab Dynamics and the Evolution of the Aegean-Anatolian Region since the Oligocene
Hang Yin - Maximizing CO2 storage in subsurface formations (as secondary supervisor)
Lize Hermogenes De Mendonca - Neotropical Biogeography (as secondary supervisor)
George Marfo - High-Resolution Sequence-Stratigraphy of Mudstones and their Organic Rich Beds, Amadeus Basin, Australia (Secondary supervisor, Tehani Palu, Geoscience Australia)
Ruaa Alohali - Enhance the accuracy of multi-member clastic reservoir mapping and its fluid distribution. A case study in a heavily eroded reservoir in Central Arabia (Primary supervisor Prof. Martin van Kranendonk, UNSW)
Mackenzie Baker - The impact of the tectonics of the Australian plate on the paleogeography (Joint supervisor A/Prof. Malte Ebach, UNSW)
Patrick Makuluni - Automated Restoration of the Northwest Shelf, Australia (Secondary supervisors Dr. Juerg Hauser and Dr. Laurent Langhi, CSIRO and A/Prof. Ryan Armstrong, UNSW)
Mohammed Almedallah - Optimisation of Drilling Paths and Oil Rig Placement (Secondary supervisors Dr. Stuart Walsh, Monash University and A/Prof. Ryan Armstrong, UNSW)
Suleiman Altaheini - Studying 3D models of reservoir geology built from numerical models of rift and passive margin development (Co-Supervisor A/Prof. Peyman Mostaghimi, UNSW)
Aina Bugge - University of Oslo - Filtering techniques and numerical solutions related to image enhancement and automated geological interpretation of seismic data (Joint supervision with Prof. Jan Inge Faleide, UiO, Dr. Jan Erik Lie, Lundin Norway).