OUR TEAM
Our founder
Dr Cansun Güralp
Founded in 2019. GaiaCode marks Dr Güralp’s return to academic and industrial seismometer manufacturing, 40 years after he first revolutionised the industry with the World's first ever broadband miniature feedback instrument.
In 1978 he patented a mechanism that used a triangular leaf spring anchored to a rotational point. In combination with a sensor mass of less than 120 grams and a differential capacitive displacement transducer, this ushered in a new era of seismic instrumentation.
Dr Güralp is once again bringing a novel range of seismometers to the market, making best use of cutting edge materials, electronics and electromechanical design to make further advances on behalf of seismology, science and society.
Design and Writing of Firmware
Paul Minchinton
Paul has been working with Cansun since 1985 when Cansun first started to manufacture seismic instrumentation for scientific research and industry. Paul graduated from The University of Reading with a 1st class degree in Cybernetics (with subsidiary Mathematics).
Paul stayed on in a part time basis for the next 35 years lecturing in Logic, Digital signal processing, Microprocessors and Heuristics. One of his main research areas was undertaken in N-Tuple neural networks. In parallel with the University he has been involved in various projects through his own company. The projects were very varied and were particularly involved in the design of hardware and embedded firmware for logging tools used in the oil exploration industry, these tools were particularly used at very high temperatures reaching 180 degrees Centigrade.
Paul and Cansun worked jointly on seismographic instrumentation for the oil exploration industry. Co-designing a variety of electronic/mechanical toys. Design of hardware and firmware for a seismic digitiser jointly with Cansun. His current work at GaiaCode is the design and writing of firmware for the TAU range of digitisers.
Digital Test Engineer
Robert Aikman
Robert is a digital test engineer working on the TAU digitiser. He has 12 years of experience in evaluating, testing, and using seismic instrumentation and this work was jointly conducted with Cansun. Robert is currently working as project leader specialising in digital electronics.
Robert is particularly interested in the networking of seismic instrumentation and their installation for Earthquake early warning systems. Robert is also in charge of calibrating the high resolution digitiser TAU.
Electronics Technician
Suzanne Tonna
Suzanne is an electronics technician specialising in inspecting electronics printed circuit boards. Her experience in military electronics and instrumentation is extremely valuable for GaiaCode. She has 20 years of experience in the electronics industry.
She is currently responsible for the quality assurance of the printed circuit boards used by GaiaCode.
Construction of Mechanical Assemblies
Joe Porter
Joe has been working at GaiaCode for the last 9 months. Joe is responsible for the construction of mechanical assemblies.
Joe is also responsible for the inspection, evaluation, and testing of the mechanical assemblies. and is in charge of calibrating SIGMA strong motion sensors.
Trainee Technician
Joshua Pennington
Josh joined GaiaCode as a trainee technician. He is responsible for managing the cabling requirements of GaiaCode products. He is also part of the mechanical assembly team particularly for the SIGMA and THETA Sensors.
Administrative Manager
Janet Prouse
Janet has been working as an Administrative Manager for GaiaCode for about 12 months. Janet trained as a physiotherapist and spent many years in medical research. Her organisational skills have been put to good use setting up systems and keeping track of all things administration related.
