Higgins Professor Emeritus
Dept. Earth and Environmental Sciences
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
Bachelor of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1960
Master of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1960
Ph.D., Columbia, 1964
Research Interests: Earthquake Studies, Control of Nuclear Weapons, Tectonics, Natural Hazards.
I very much enjoy working on topics that have significant scientific and public policy components such as large earthquakes in California and Alaska, what causes earthquakes in plate interiors like the eastern United States, natural and technological hazards and disasters, and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. I use seismic and other data from the earth sciences to characterize earthquakes and explosions. Four graduate students and I have modeled the evolution of stresses in California to ascertain what fault segments are likely to be the sites of large earthquakes during the next few decades. I have authored or coauthored more than 130 scientific papers, about 35 of which are in the area of the verification of nuclear testing. I was a member of the U.S. delegation that negotiated the Threshold Test Ban Treaty with the U.S.S.R. in1974. I am a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2000 I received the Vetelesen Award along with Walter Pitman and Jason Morgan for our contributions to the development of plate tectonics.
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