Xin Cui

Postdoctoral Researcher in Geophysics
University of Science and Technology of China (USTC)
No. 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, Anhui, China

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher in Geophysics at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), working in the Laboratory of DAta Mining for Seismology (DAMS) with Prof. Zefeng Li. I received my Ph.D. in Geophysics from USTC in 2025 under the supervision of Prof. Zefeng Li. I completed my bachelor's degree at USTC, co-advised by Prof. Zefeng Li and Prof. Yan Hu. I was a visiting student at Université Côte d'Azur, Geoazur Laboratory, working with Prof. Jean-Paul Ampuero, and at Caltech working with Prof. Robert Clayton.

My current research interests include:

  • Machine Learning in Seismology: ML applications to event clustering and new seismological discoveries.
  • Seismic Agent: agentic AI workflows for reproducible seismic data analysis and earthquake-sequence research.
  • Earthquake Physics: Evolution and properties of foreshocks, aftershocks, and mainshocks.
  • Earthquake Cycle: Simulation of coseismic and postseismic deformation.

I am broadly interested in physically interpretable machine-learning methods for earthquake sequence analysis, source processes, and earthquake-cycle deformation.

News

Feb. 2026

Started as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Geophysics at USTC.

Dec. 2025

Received my Ph.D. in Geophysics from USTC.

Oct. 2025

Awarded the President's Special Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Dean's Award from the School of Earth and Space Sciences, USTC.

May 2025

Our paper on how seismic monitoring capability affects foreshock identification was published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Sep. 01, 2024

Started as a visiting student at Université Côte d'Azur, Geoazur Laboratory, Nice, France.

Aug. 15, 2024

Participated in a geological field trip on Huangshan with DAMS members.

Apr. 15, 2024

Awarded funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for the Youth Student Basic Research (PhD Student) Project.

Mar. 06, 2024

Received the Outstanding Student Presentation Award at the 2023 Annual Meeting of American Geophysical Union (AGU), USA.