H i s t o r y

Centre of Geophysical Data Studies and Telematics Applications (CGDS) was founded as a part of Scmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth of Russian Academy of Sciences (IPE RAS) on 15 January 1991. CGDS is located near the campus of Moscow Lomonosov State University at 3, Molodezhnaya St., 117964 GSP-1 Moscow, Russia.

CGDS specializes in development and adaptation of new computer networking technologies to support Earth sciences data studies and exchange, with special emphasis on geophysical applications, as well as humanitarian activities. The centre includes four research groups: Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence (Head Prof., Dr. Alexei Gvishiani), Laboratory of Telecommunications and Information Technologies (Head Dr. Mikhail Zhizhin), and Laboratory of Geoinformation Systems (Head Dr. Alexander Beriozko) and Laboratory of Mathematical Geophysics and Joint Interpretations of Geophysical Data (Head Prof., Dr. Valentine Mikhailov).

CGDS's staff consists of 32 members including two full professors (DoS) and 8 PhDs. Prof. Alexei Gvishiani has been the head of CGDS since it has been founded. Leading CGDS scientists M.N. Zhizhin, A.V. Troussov, E.B. Bourov, A.E. Beriozko, V. Zaalishvili, M.D. Kovalenko, S. Agayan, E.M. Graeva, engineers, managers and system administrators A.V. Andreev, T.D. Shulyakovskaya, E.S. Bolotsky, D.V. Nechitailenko, E.O. Kedrov, and others are well known and recognized in Russian scientific community, as well as at international level.

CGDS operates a powerful local area network (LAN) (8 servers and 32 workstations operating under Windows NT 4.0, Windows XP/2000/98, Linux Red Hat 5.2 and Solaris 2.5-7) with high speed (1 GBps) fiber optic Internet connection to Moscow Internet backbone through campus network of Moscow Lomonosov State University.

The main topics of CGDS scientific activities are:

• development, adaptation and dissemination of modern computer and telematics technologies;
• development of technologies for collecting, processing and exchange of earth science and satellite data via Internet;
• development of on-line geological-geophysical data banks;
• development of artificial intelligence techniques and software for geophysical and geodynamic studies;
• study of global classifications of seismological records in connection with seismic engineering problems;
• development of telematics technologies for global seismic hazard assessment;
• geographical information systems (GIS) development and adaptation.

CGDS produced more than 150 papers in Russian and international scientific journals. Three books have been published recently (one of them is "Dynamic Classification Problems in Geophysical Applications" by J.O. Dubois and A.D. Gvishiani published in Springer-Verlag in 1998).

2000–2004 © CGDS