Hovav Zafrir

Short Bio:

Hovav Zafrir is a senior nuclear geophysicist that worked from 1968 to 2004, with SOREQ, Nuclear Research Center (NRC), Yavne, Israel, in applied research. From 2004 to 2018, he continued his professional career as an emeritus at The Geological Survey of Israel in Jerusalem and has published since 2004 about 20 refereed journal papers and conference proceeding papers. Dr. Zafrir is an adjunct associate professor in the faculty of engineering at Bar Ilan University. \\\\r\\\\nHe earned his B.Sc. in physics & mathematics from the University of Jerusalem in 1964, M.Sc. in nuclear & solid-state physics from Tel Aviv University in 1968, and Ph.D. in applied Geophysics and Geochemistry from Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel in 1987. From 1977 to 1989 he headed the national uranium exploration project undertaken by SOREQ and the Geological Survey of Israel. In 1982 the Hon. Y. Navon, President of Israel, awarded him the E. D. Bergman prize for applied research. From 1994 to 2003 he served as a senior R&D Scientist and section head of the Applied Radiation division, in SOREQ NRC. \\\\r\\\\nSince 1989 to date he conducted and coordinated a variety of projects to adapt remote teleoperated air, ground, and marine vehicles for earth sciences, mineral exploration, environmental cleanup, and hazardous materials remediation, with special emphasis on real-time monitoring of nuclear facility accidents such as Chernobyl. These projects included the development of hardware, software, and integration into remote teleoperated air, ground, and marine vehicles. \\\\r\\\\nHis diverse experience includes geophysical investigations that required the development of state-of-the-art laboratory and field technologies. He headed a variety of projects related to the development of sensors and technologies as it applies to nuclear material analysis, mineral exploration, earth science, and environmental monitoring. These projects included the development of hardware, software, and their integration into remote air, ground and marine vehicles. \\\\r\\\\nOver the last 14 years, Dr. Zafrir has accumulated extensive experience in earthquake monitoring using multidisciplinary sensor technology. Today, Dr. Zafrir is leading a research group with extensive experience associated with radon and CO2 monitoring within deep boreholes, as a proxy for gas flow at depth, as an earthquake underground precursor.