Dr. Pepen Supendi, Less than 3 Years Completed Geophysics Engineering Doctoral Program with 21 international publications (SCOPUS)

The Doctoral degree is the highest degree in the world of education. The long process and demands for novelty in research are part of the process that must be passed by a doctoral student. Consequently, a Doctoral Student must spend sufficient time and focus on the research being carried out.

Most Doctoral Students spend  5 years or sometimes even more doing PhD research with one or two publications as a prerequisite for graduation. Not a few Doctoral Program students are overwhelmed with fulfilling the requirements for publishing scientific papers in reputable international journals.

But all that did not happen to a Pepen Supendi. Pepen Supendi, who works as a Geophysical Observer at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Bandung office, was also registered as a student in the Geophysical Engineering Doctoral Program – FTTM – ITB in August 2017.

Pepen received a Voucher – ITB scholarship offered by its promoter Prof. Dr. Andri Dian Nugraha. The requirement for a student who gets an ITB voucher is to become a research assistant in the laboratory. So Pepen Supendi has to play three roles, the role of staff at BMKG, Doctoral Student and Research Assistant.

Of course this condition is not easy.

Being good at managing time and being ready to take less rest are the consequences that Pepen must face.

Pepen Supendi is not new to ITB. In January 2012, Pepen got the opportunity to do a study assignment in the Geophysics Engineering Study Program in the BMKG and ITB Collaboration Program, continuing from the Meteorology and Geophysics Academy (AMG) D3 program to the undergraduate level. In October 2013, Pepen graduated with an almost perfect GPA of 3.88. The final assignment was supervised by Prof. Dr. Andri Dian Nugraha and Prof. Dr. Nanang T Puspito.

In early 2015, Pepen Supendi received another scholarship from BMKG to continue his Masters in the Earth Science Study Program, Faculty of Earth Science and Technology – ITB. Prof. Dr. Andri Dian Nugraha and Prof. Dr. Nanang T Puspito became the supervisor of the Pepen Supendi Thesis. In October 2016, Pepen completed his Masters Program with a perfect GPA of 4.0.

August 2017, Pepen Supendi returned to ITB to continue his Doctoral Program in Geophysics Engineering. He received a study permit decree from the BMKG to continue his studies, so Pepen had to continue working like his colleagues at the Bandung BMKG office.

At BMKG Bandung, Pepen works in the Geophysical Operations section, working 24/7 of course divided into several shifts. With the excuse of not interfering with his lectures, Pepen always takes the night shift and lectures during the day. This condition is not easy, the consequences are fatigue, lack of rest, and irregular eating, as well as stress. But that’s all addressed as part of a life’s journey that must be passed and grateful for in order to achieve success.

During his doctoral studies at ITB, Pepen Supendi had several research visit/collaboration opportunities with universities abroad, including going to Kyoto University-Japan to take part in the Kyoto University Active Geosphere Investigation program on March 5-13 2018.
16-31 May 2018 had the opportunity to research visit/collaboration to the Australian National University (ANU)-Australia at the invitation of Prof. Phil Cummins. There he carried out data processing and analysis for dissertation research with Prof. Phil Cummins.

On 1-30 November 2019, Pepen Supendi had the opportunity to research visit/collaboration to the University of Cambridge at the invitation of Prof. Nicholas Rawlinson. There he carried out data analysis and wrote a paper with Prof. Nicholas Rawlinson.

Apart from visiting several of the world’s top universities, Pepen Supendi is also active in carrying out several survey activities to support his doctoral research. Such as Lombok, Kupang, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

His 4 main papers during PhD were published in the journal Geoscience Letters (Q1 Schimago) in 2018 and 2019, Geophysical Journal International (Q1 Schimago)in 2020, and Geophysical Research Letters (Q1 Schimago) in 2020.

As a co-author, his paper was published in 7 reputable international journals, namely Geophysical Research Letters (Q1 Schimago) in 2019, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (Q1 Schimago) of 2018, Earthquake Sciences (Q3 Schimago) 2019, Open Geosciences(Q3 Schimago)2018,  Geophysical Research Letters (Q1 Schimago)</em  2020, Seismological Research Letter (Q1 Schimago) 2020, Geodesy and Geodynamics (Q2 Schimago) the year 2020.