Jeffrey Given is honored for his work in developing the complex seismic monitoring tools that were essential to building an operational Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) 2025 Frank Press Public Service Award.
“Jeff’s scientific and development work on nuclear monitoring spans an impressive breadth from fundamental seismology to the hands-on minutia of developing and supporting the operational system that owes to him countless contributions over a period of three decades,” said Ronan Le Bras, a senior research scientist at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence who nominated Given for the award.
As a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology, Given worked with Hiroo Kanamori to develop methods to rapidly determine the source mechanism of large earthquakes using the newly available digital seismometer networks. Given’s early work on earthquake and explosion source studies began a long career in applied seismology focusing on near-real-time data for monitoring purposes.
His interest in software development and his fluency in many computer languages led to his key roles in establishing and maintaining the International Data Center (IDC) for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization. For 30 years, he offered expertise and advice on the CTBTO’s seismic waveform acquisition system, waveform detectors, surface wave processing, event detection and location moment tensor estimators.
Given led international IDC teams that implemented advances in seismology while also including newer hydroacoustic, infrasound and radionuclide technologies. Later in his career, Given worked to support U.S. national efforts to enhance both U.S. and CTBTO monitoring capabilities.
In their commendations of Given, his colleagues noted his unusual combination of theoretical and applied seismological expertise, along with software and data management skills, that made him a valuable leader in creating transparent, reliable and ever-evolving nuclear monitoring. His low-key but impactful leadership skills, they added, have brought international respect to a process that has contributed substantially to the peace of the planet.
Given received his B.S. in geophysical engineering from Colorado School of Mines in 1974 and his Ph.D. in geophysics from California Institute of Technology in 1983.