Jimmy is an engineering and environmental geophysicist at the British Geological Survey (BGS), currently sitting under the Multi-hazards and Risk challenge area. Jimmy was engaged with both the BGS and Lancaster University for his doctorate degree studying hydrogeophysics in the context of landslides. It is here he developed expertise in 4D geoelectrical monitoring for environmental processes, finite element mesh generation, hydrogeophysics and petrophysics. He is also adept at programming, as much of Jimmy’s work requires bespoke workflows to achieve research (and sometimes commercial) objectives. Notably Jimmy is a core developer of “ResIPy” which is a Python API and/or graphical interface wrapper for processing geoelectrical data, with his main contribution being the visualisation and mesh generation elements of the software. Through practical, and theoretical, experience Jimmy can provide a rounded skill set to ongoing projects at BGS, and actively engages with students, academics and commercial partners.
Jimmy Boyd’s biography
- 2021 to present: Environmental and engineering geophysicist, British Geological Survey
- 2017 to 2024: PhD Hydrogeophysics, Lancaster University and British Geological Survey
- 2016 to 2017: MSc Exploration Geophysics, University of Leeds
- 2013 to 2016: BSc Geology with Geophysics, University of Leicester
Research interests
- Geophysics
- Geoelectrics
- Programming
- Engineering Geology
Projects and collaborations
- ResIPy – Open-source software for processing electrical resistivity and induced polarization data
- ACHILLES – Assessing the resilience of the UK’s long linear assets (e.g. railway or flood embankments) to the consequences of seasonal cycles and climate change. The project involved the use of geophysics for enhanced ground model development of embankments. Funded by EPSRC
Published outputs
- Near surface geophysics (ERT, SRT, MASW, EM mapping)
- Time-lapse geoelectrics (4D ERT)
- Hydrogeophysics
- Petrophysics
- Software development (e.g ResIPy)
- Automation
- 3D Visualisation (Paraview, PyVista)
- Ground model development
- Geographical Information Systems (e.g. QGIS)
- Programming languages: Python, (Cython), MATLAB, C++
- Fellow of the Geological Society of London
- Member of European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE)