Damià Benet
AXA Postdoctoral Fellow

Damià Benet

Volcanologist & Data Scientist

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Volcanic Ash · ML Computer Vision AXA Fellow 2025–2027
Contact Me View Publications
// about

Research Focus

I am a volcanologist and data scientist working at the intersection of Earth sciences, image analysis, and artificial intelligence. My research focuses on volcanic ash and petrological images, with a strong interest in building open databases and web tools for scientific use. As an AXA Postdoctoral Fellow at IPGP Paris, I also work on AI-assisted methods to detect and fact-check misinformation about natural hazards on social media.

5 Peer-reviewed publications in international journals
140k€ AXA Postdoctoral Fellowship (2025–2027)
12+ Years of international research experience
// career & education

Journey

Jul 2025 – Present
Work

AXA Postdoctoral Fellow

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France

May 2023 – Jun 2025
Work

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France

Jan 2018 – Apr 2023
Education

PhD in Earth Sciences (Volcanology)

Nanyang Technological University · Earth Observatory of Singapore

Fall 2020
Training

Neural Networks & Deep Learning (Audit)

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Spring 2020
Training

Data Science for Environmental Systems

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Fall 2018
Training

Teaching Assistant Programme

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Mar 2016 – Sep 2016
Training

Research Training — Stable Isotopy of Strontium

INGV Osservatorio Vesuviano, Italy

Sep 2015 – Jul 2016
Education

MSc in Ore Deposits & Geological Hazards

University of Barcelona, Spain

Sep 2014 – May 2015
Training

Research Training — Volcanology & Petrology

Háskóli Íslands (University of Iceland), Reykjavik

Sep 2011 – Jul 2015
Education

BSc in Geology

University of Barcelona, Spain

// peer-reviewed

Publications

5 peer-reviewed publications · 6 conference abstracts · 3 invited presentations

Scientific Data

A repository-hosted dataset of volcanic ash particle images and features

Benet, D., Costa, F., Migadel, K., Lee, D.W., D'Oriano, C., Pompilio, M., Nurfiani, D., Rifai, H.

↗ doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04942-9
TAO Sciences

Decrypting the sediment record of very late stage volcanic activities in Tatun volcano group, Northern Taiwan

Hong, G.T., Benet, D., Wang, K.L., Costa, F., Wang, L.C.

↗ doi.org/10.1007/s44195-025-00104-x
Bulletin of Volcanology

VolcAshDB: a Volcanic Ash DataBase of classified particle images and features

Benet, D., Costa, F., Widiwijayanti, C., Pallister, J., Pedreros, G., Allard, P., Humaida, H., Aoki, Y., Maeno, F.

↗ doi.org/10.1007/s00445-021-01516-6
JVGR

The volcanic ash record of shallow magma intrusion, conduit opening, and dome emplacement at Nevados de Chillán Volcanic Complex, Chile

Benet, D., Costa, F., Pedreros, G., Cardona, C.

↗ doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2021.107308

Conference Abstracts

Apr 2026 Cancino, G.A., Benet, D., Petrone, C.M., Gaunt, H.E., Steele, A.L., Bernard, B. Development of a Machine Learning Classifier to retrieve Time-Series of Ash Componentry at Tungurahua Volcano, Ecuador, 1999–2016. EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria.
Jul 2025 Benet, D., Costa, F., Migadel, K., Lee, D.W., D'Oriano, C., Pompilio, M., Nurfiani, D., Rifai, H. Developing and data mining with machine learning a volcanic ash database (VolcAshDB). IAVCEI Scientific Assembly 2025, Geneva, Switzerland.
Apr 2024 Benet, D., Costa, F., Widiwijayanti, C., Pallister, J., Pedreros, G., Allard, P., Humaida, H., Aoki, Y., Maeno, F. The making of a Volcanic Ash DataBase (VolcAshDB) and its exploitation with machine learning. EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria.
Feb 2023 Benet, D., Costa, F., Widiwijayanti, C., Pallister, J., Allard, P. A web-based platform (VolcashDB) of ash particle images towards an automatic classification. IAVCEI Scientific Assembly 2023, Rotorua, New Zealand.
Jun 2022 Benet, D., Costa, F., Pallister, J., Allard, P. The importance of volcanic ash monitoring and progress towards a semi-automatic classification of particles. Cities on Volcanoes 11, Crete, Greece.
Jul 2017 Benet, D., Carrazana, A., Gimeno, D. Textural, geochemical and leaching study of volcanic ash: Environmental impact of the Calbuco volcano eruption, April 2015. Goldschmidt 2017, Paris, France.

Invited Presentations & Workshops

May 2023 Invited speaker — Machine Learning for volcanic ash studies. Première conférence du Réseau thématique NuTS, Lyon, France.
Mar 2023 Invited speaker — Machine Learning for volcanic ash studies. IAVCEI workshop: Towards a standardized method of analyzing juvenile pyroclasts, Rotorua, New Zealand.
Oct 2019 Invited speaker — Volcanic ash: What does it tell us? Asian Consortium of Volcanology workshop, Taipei, Taiwan.
// technical

Skills & Tools

⬡ Programming

Python
R
JavaScript
MATLAB

⬡ Machine Learning

Scikit-learn
PyTorch
TensorFlow

⬡ Computer Vision

Scikit-image
OpenCV Python

⬡ Web Development

Node.js
React
MongoDB

Languages

Catalan ●●●●●
Spanish ●●●●●
English ●●●●○
French ●●○○○
Italian ●●○○○
// additional

More

Jul 2025 – Jul 2027 AXA Postdoctoral Fellowship 140,000 EUR
Jan 2018 – Dec 2022 A*STAR PhD Scholarship, Singapore
Sep 2021 Dr. Stephen Riady Geoscience Scholarship 5,490 S$
2014 & 2016 Erasmus Mundus Undergraduate & Graduate Scholarships
Spr 2017 – Spr 2020 Introduction to Geological Field Mapping (182.45 hrs) — Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Spring 2019 Introduction to Scientific Writing (104 hrs) — Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Spring–Fall 2019 Mentoring Undergraduate Research Project (100 hrs) — Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Jan 2024 – Present Organizer, AI and Image Analysis (AIIA) meetings — Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
Spring 2024 Master Thesis co-advisor (E. Torregrosa Garma & F. Dugauquier) — Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
Fall 2019 Bachelor Thesis co-advisor (J. Rui & Z. Min) — Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University
2018 Collaboration with SERNAGEOMIN (Chile) & CVGHM (Indonesia) on volcanic ash classification
Fall 2020 Neural Networks & Deep Learning (Audit) — Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Spring 2020 Fundamentals of Data Science for Environmental Systems — Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Fall 2018 Teaching Assistant Programme — Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Mar – Sep 2016 Research Training in Stable Isotopy of Strontium — INGV Osservatorio Vesuviano, Italy
Sep 2014 – May 2015 Research Training in Volcanology and Petrology — Háskóli Íslands (University of Iceland), Reykjavik