Meet the 2026 KISS Affiliates
Victor Vescu
Graduate student in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Hometown: Bucharest, Romania
Date of this Interview: December 20, 2025
What do you research?
My research is about the mechanics of natural and human-induced earthquakes. I use numerical simulations to investigate the physical processes that control seismic activity. I study phenomena that occur during an earthquake, such as dynamic weakening. I also analyse how human activities, such as geothermal energy production and resource extraction, alter subsurface stress, and how these changes influence the likelihood of fault activation and seismic hazard.
Why does space inspire you?
Space puts Earth's story into context. When you compare worlds, you learn what’s universal and what’s contingent. For example, plate tectonics isn’t guaranteed, but a special outcome of composition, temperature, water, and time. When we examine a volcano on Io or a rift on Europa, we recognize the same mechanisms we study on Earth, expressed in a different environment. As an Earth scientist, I am inspired by that.
If you could instantly travel to any point in the universe, where would you choose to go?
I’d go to Cerberus Fossae on Mars, right above the active fault system near Elysium Planitia, and I’d wait to feel a real marsquake.
Where can you be found when you’re not conducting research?
Outside, on a trail, on the road, or hanging on a climbing rope, strapped in a harness.
What book do you wish you could read for the first time again?
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Rocky is my favourite alien in all of fiction. Amaze amaze amaze
Taking trend and plunge measurements of lineations on a displaced outcrop in Palm Canyon, California