Rebecca Pearce

Dr. Rebecca Pearce is a post-doctoral research fellow and science lead for the Ultradeep Geothermal program. Her role involves identifying technology gaps for exploring and developing next-generation geothermal resources, and defining strategies to close these gaps in collaboration with Canadian and international geothermal actors advancing this research frontier. She is a geophysicist with a specialty in magnetotellurics (MT), a geophysical technique that measures the electrical conductivity structure in the subsurface of the Earth. Her PhD research at University College London involved collecting, processing, and analyzing MT data to resolve the tectono-volcanic domains that facilitate geothermal fluid transport and storage in the Chilean Andes.

Following the completion of her PhD in 2020, Rebecca contributed to the Canadian geothermal industry by leading an MT survey for a known resource in Northern BC as part of a feasibility study led by Borealis Geopower, conducting a global geothermal market assessment for CanGEA, and advocating for the diverse applications of geothermal heat and power.

Rebecca was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Simon Fraser University, where she contributed to an industry- and federally funded research project to develop a novel method of resource detection that reduces the environmental impact of mining called muon tomography. She was also the lead MT technician on project GHOST of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration: the 2022/23 multi-geophysical campaign on Thwaites glacier in West Antarctica. The study improved glacial retreat models and projections of future global sea level rise