Educational History

• M.Sc. Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology, Stanford University
• B. A. Geology And Mathematics Oberlin College

Mike Cardiff received his B.A. in Geology and Mathematics (with a Religion minor) from Oberlin College in 2001, where he received High Honors for his project "Ant-Colony Optimization of Computer Keyboard Layouts." After graduating, he worked for PPC, a small environmental/IT consulting firm in the DC-area, where among other projects he served as database administrator for IPABS, a central DOE database used to store information about nuclear waste cleanup efforts. In 2004, he returned to school this time for a M.Sc. degree from Stanford University in Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is currently pursuing his PhD in the study of Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology under his advisor, Professor Peter K. Kitanidis.

Research Interests

• Delineation of boundaries and interfaces with indirect data
• Data integration and joint inversion
• Geostatistics and geostatistical methods
• Applications of optimization methodologies and heuristics to environmental problems

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Cardiff, M. and P.K. Kitanidis. 2009 (submitted). Fitting data under omni-directional noise: A maximum likelihood perspective. Geophysical Research Letters.

Cardiff, M. and P.K. Kitanidis. 2009 (submitted). Bayesian inversion for facies detection: An extensible level set framework. Water Resources Research.

Cardiff, M., W. Barrash, P.K. Kitanidis, A. Revil, S. Straface, E. Rizzo, and T. Johnson. 2009. A potential-based inversion of unconfined steady-state hydraulic tomography. Ground Water 47 (2) 259-270.

Jardani, A., A. Revil, W. Barrash, A. Crespy, E. Rizzo, S. Straface, M. Cardiff, B. Malama, C. Miller, and T. Johnson. 2008-in review. Reconstruction of the water table from self-potential data: A Bayesian approach. Ground Water.

Cardiff, M., and P.K. Kitanidis. 2008.  Efficient solution of nonlinear, underdetermined inverse problems with a generalized PDE model. Computers and Geosciences 34, 1480-1491.

Cardiff, M., G. Hughes and R. Bosch.   Maximizing fun in a theme park: The M⁷TP. The UMAP Journal

Conference Presentations & Papers

Cardiff, M. 2009. Mapping interfaces and facies with indirect, noisy data. Invited talk, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Earth Science Division Meeting, Berkeley, CA, USA.

Cardiff, M. and P.K. Kitanidis. 2008. A Bayesian level-set inversion protocol (BLIP) for structural zonation. Eos Trans. AGU, 89(53), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract H41A-0834.

Liu, X., M. Cardiff, J. Parker and P.K. Kitanidis. 2008. NAPL remediation cost optimization under uncertainty using a semi-analytic model. Eos Trans. AGU 89(53), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract H31D-0889.

Hughes, G., M. Cardiff and Steven Wojtal. Application of Bezier splines to the analysis of folds. Geological Society of America Joint Meeting 2008. Houston, TX USA.

Cardiff, M. 2008. Imaging the subsurface with sparse, noisy data: Methods and case studies in hydrogeology. Invited talk, University of Sheffield Groundwater Protection and Restoration Group, Sheffield, UK.

Cardiff, M. and P.K. Kitanidis. 2008. New frontiers in inversion and data integration. Banff International Research Station Conference on Integrated Hydrogeophysical Inversion, Banff, Alberta Canada.

Cardiff, M. and P.K. Kitanidis. 2008. Joint inversion for hydrogeophysical facies zonation through level set methods. Computational Methods in Water Resources International Conference  2008, San Francisco, CA USA.

Cardiff, M. and P.K. Kitanidis. 2008. Multiphysics models as a platform for environmental modeling and inverse modeling. Computational Methods in Water Resources International Conference  2008, San Francisco, CA USA.

Barrash, W., A. Revil, M. Cardiff, T. Johnson, B. Malama, E. Rizzo, C. Miller, and S. Straface. 2007. Combined hydraulic tomography - self potential - electrical resistivity tomography for parameter estimation in the unconfined aquifer at the Boise Hydrogeophysical Research Site. Eos Trans. AGU 88(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract H33M-04.

Cardiff, M. and P.K. Kitanidis. 2006. Use of COMSOL Multiphysics for efficient, automatic inverse modeling of PDE-based systems: applications to aquifer characterization. COMSOL User's Conference 2006 Boston Conference Proceedings, 247-253.

Cardiff, M. and P.K. Kitanidis. 2005.   Semivariogram Estimation Using Ant Colony Optimization and Ensemble Kriging Accounting for Parameter Uncertainty. EOS Trans. AGU, 86(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract H13D-1354. Poster Website

Cardiff, M. A., Y. Shen, and the ICEMELT and HOTSPOT teams. 1999.   Azimuthal dependence of mantle discontinuities near 220 and 300 km depth beneath Iceland. EOS Trans. AGU, 80, S218.

Cardiff, M., and G. Hughes. 2000. Maximizing fun at an amusement park: The M⁷TP. International Symposium on Mathematical Programming 2000.

Teaching Experience & Materials

• Graduate Teaching Consultant - Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning (2008-present)
• Award: Stanford University Centennial Teaching Assistant Award (2008)
• Teaching Assistant - CEE-268: Groundwater Flow (2005-2008)
• Prepared and delivered lectures for 33% of classes
• Homework Grading and Solution Sets for 8 Problem Sets, 12 to 30 students
• Held regular problem sessions and office hours
• Produced all materials and lectures for 2-week long mini-course on COMSOL Multiphysics Modeling Environment Course Materials
• Lecturer - CEE-201D: Mathematics Laboratory Applications in Civil and Environmental Engineering (2007)
• Prepared and delivered lectures for 20% of classes

Reviewer

Journal, Water Resources Research

Journal, Ground Water