William R. Lettis has been selected as the William B. Joyner Memorial Lecturer for 2017. Lettis founded William Lettis & Associates, Inc. in 1990 and Lettis Consultants International, Inc. in 2011 to provide consultancy at the interface of earthquake science and earthquake engineering. He will deliver his lecture in April 2017 at the Seismological Society of America (SSA) Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado and in March 2017 at the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon.
Lettis has characterized seismic sources for probabilistic seismic hazard analyses for high-risk facilities at over 100 locations within the United States and throughout the world, in a range of seismic environments. His paleoseismic research on active faults has resulted in more than 100 publications and in guidance documents for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
He is a current member of the National Seismic Hazard and Risk Assessment Steering Committee and the California Geological Survey Mapping Committee. From 1996 to 2008, Dr. Lettis also served as co-chair for the American Nuclear Society Working Group Committee 2.27 to develop evaluation criteria for assessing seismic hazards for nuclear materials facilities. He has performed post-earthquake reconnaissance of numerous earthquakes worldwide, including as co-leader of the EERI 2001 Bhuj Earthquake Reconnaissance Team. Lettis’ current interest is in developing models to capture uncertainty in earthquake behavior and ground motion parameters for seismic hazard assessment, including implementation of procedures from the Senior Seismic Hazard Analysis Committee (SSHAC).
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