So Ozawa（小澤創）

I am So Ozawa (小澤創/おざわそう, e-mail : sozawa [at] eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp), assistant professor at Earthquake Research Institute, Unviersity of Tokyo.

I completed my PhD in Geophysics at Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Japan, and did my postdoc at Stanford University. I am developing physics-based models and efficient computational methods for solid earth deformation and using them to tackle outstanding questions in earthquake science.

I have accounts on LinkedIn, Twitter, and GitHub.

If you are interested in working with me as a graduate student, visiting student, or postdoc, please send me an email. ERI has an international visiting researcher program.

Research Interest

Earthquake seismology, Fault mechanics, Solid and fluid mechanics, Friction and fracture, Numerical methods for partial differential equations, High-performance computing, Structural geology, Rock physics, Subduction zone tectonics

2024/4 - Assistant Professor (Research Associate), Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo

2022/6 - 2024/9 , Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Geophysics, Stanford University (superviser: Eric M. Dunham)

2022/4- 2022/6, Visiting Researcher, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo

2019/4 - 2022/3, PhD course, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo (thesis title: Numerical study of earthquake generation processes on nonplanar faults, superviser: Ryosuke Ando)

2017/4 - 2019/3, Master Course, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo (superviser: Takahiro Hatano)

2013/4 - 2017/3, Undergraduate Course, Department of Earth and Planetary Physics, School of Science, The University of Tokyo

Grants

2024, Excellent Young Researcher, The University of Tokyo (東京大学卓越研究員)

2024-2026, JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up 24K22895 (研究活動スタート支援)

2023-2024, Overseas Research Support, Yamada Science Foundation (Japanese website)

2023-2024, JSPS Overseas Research Fellowship (Japanese website)

2019, Oversea Research Program of Science of Slow Earthquakes (Japanese website)

2019-2022, JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists DC1 (Japanese website)

Awards

2024, Outstanding Reviewer Award, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, American Geophysical Unicon

2022, Research Encouragement Award for PhD, School of Science, University of Tokyo

2019, Research Encouragement Award for MS, School of Science, University of Tokyo

2019, Outstanding Student Presentation Award, JpGU meeting (Japanese website)

2017, Outstanding Student Presentation Award, SSJ fall meeting (Japanese website)

Publications (Google Scholar)

So Ozawa, Partial ruptures, cascading multi-fault ruptures, and aftershocks in 2D random fault network, submitted

So Ozawa, Eric M. Dunham, Cailey Condit, Metamorphic dehydration, fluid pressure, and the frictional-viscous transition along subduction megathrusts: Case study in Cascadia and implications for slow earthquakes, submitted, preprint

Natalia Berrios-Rivera, So Ozawa, Eric M. Dunham, Models of fluid-induced seismic slip with permeability enhancement and rate-and-state friction, submitted. preprint

[9] Lambert, V., Erickson, B. A., Jiang, J., Dunham, E. M., Kim, T. J., Ando, R., Dublanchet, P., Elbanna, A., Fialko, Y., Gabriel, A.-A., Lapusta, N., Li, M., Marcum, J., May, D., Mia, M. S., Ozawa, S., Pranger, C., Romanet, P., van Dinther, Y., Yang, Y., Yun, J. (2025), "Community-Driven Code Comparisons for Simulations of Fluid-Induced Aseismic Slip", Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2024JB030601

[8] So Ozawa, Yuyun Yang, Eric M. Dunham (2024), "Fault Valve Instability: A mechanism for slow slip events", Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 129, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JB029165, Editor's Highlights

[7] So Ozawa, Ryosuke Ando, Eric M. Dunham (2023), "Quantifying the probability of rupture arrest at restraining and releasing bends using earthquake sequence simulations", Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 617 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2023.118276

[6] Erickson, B. A., J. Jiang, V. Lambert, M. Abdelmeguid, M. Almquist, J.-P. Ampuero, R. Ando, S. Barbot, C. Cattania, A. Chen, L. Dal Zilio, E. M. Dunham, A. Elbanna, A.-A. Gabriel, T. W. Harvey, Y. Huang, Y. Kaneko, J. E. Kozdon, N. Lapusta, D. Li, M. Li, C. Liang, Y. Liu, S. Ozawa, C. Pranger, P. Segall, Y. Sun, P. Thakur, C. Uphoff, Y. van Dinther, Y. Yang (2023), Incorporating Full Elastodynamic Effects and Dipping Fault Geometries in Community Code Verification Exercises for Simulations of Earthquake Sequences and Aseismic Slip (SEAS), Bulletin of Seismological Society of America, 113 (2) 499-523, https://doi.org/10.1785/0120220066, preprint

[5] So Ozawa, Akihiro Ida, Tetsuya Hoshino, Ryosuke Ando (2023), "Large-scale earthquake sequence simulations of 3D geometrically complex faults using the boundary element method accelerated by lattice H-matrices", Geophysical Journal International 232 (3), 1471-1481, https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggac386

[4] Junle Jiang, Brittany Erickson, Valere Lambert, Jean-Paul Ampuero, Ryosuke Ando, Sylvain Barbot, Camilla Cattania, Luca Dal Zilio, Benchun Duan, Eric M Dunham, Alice-Agnes Gabriel, Nadia Lapusta, Duo Li, Meng Li, Dunyu Liu, Yajing Liu, So Ozawa, Casper Pranger, Ylona van Dinther (2022), "Community-Driven Code Comparisons for Three-Dimensional Dynamic Modeling of Sequences of Earthquakes and Aseismic Slip (SEAS)", Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 127 (3), https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JB023519

[3] Pierre Romanet & So Ozawa (2022), "Fully dynamic earthquake cycle simulations on a non-planar fault using the spectral boundary integral element method", Bulletin of Seismological Society of America, 112 (1), https://doi.org/10.1785/0120210178, preprint

[2] So Ozawa and Ryosuke Ando (2021), "Mainshock and Aftershock Sequence Simulation in Geometrically Complex Fault Zones", Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 126 (2), https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JB020865

[1] So Ozawa, Takahiro Hatano, and Nobuki Kame (2019), "Longer migration and spontaneous decay of aseismic slip pulse caused by fault roughness", Geophysical Research Letters, 46 (2), 636-643, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL081465

Invited talks

2025 CRESCENT Fluid Workshop, Atmospheric Ocean Research Institute at U-Tokyo, AGU Fall Meeting

2024 Univ. of Southern California, Modeling Crustal Deformation workshop, Caltech, AGU Fall Meeting

2023 SOLIST (Solid Earth Seminar in Tsukuba), University of Tokyo, JAMSTEC, UC Santa Cruz, US Geological Survey

2022 JpGU meeting, CIG seismic cycle webinar series, UC Berkeley

Membership

Japan Geoscience Union (2017 - present), Seismological Society of Japan (2017 - present), American Geophysical Union (2018 - present), Southern California Earthquake Center (2022- present)

Last update: November 13, 2025

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