Robert S. Carmichael is professor of Geophysics and Geology in the Department of Geology, University of Iowa, Iowa City. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A.Sc. degree in geophysics / engineering physics, and then earned M.S. and Ph.D degrees in Earth and Planetary Science from the University of Pittsburgh. His thesis specialties were in seismology and rock magnetism, and while there, he was an Andrew Mellon university Fellow.

After graduation in 1967, he spent a year at Osaka University in Japan, as a post-doctoral Research Fellow of the Japan Society for Promotion of Science and working in high-pressure geophysics. Upon return, he joined Shell Oil's Research Centre in Houston as a research geophysicist in petroleum exploration. Now at the University of Iowa, Dr. Carmichael has research interests in rock properties, exploration geo physics, high-pressure geophysics and magnetics, and earthquakes in the central Mid-continent region.

He has authored over 25 scientific articles and done consulting for geotechnical and seismic problems. He is a member of the American Geophysical Union, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Iowa Academy Science, Association of Professional Engineers, and Society of Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity.