23 January 2024–SSA is pleased to announce the recipients of several of the Society’s awards for 2024. The Harry Fielding Reid Medal, the Charles F. Richter Early Career Award, the Frank Press Public Service Award and the SSA Distinguished Service Award are among the highest honors conferred by the Society.
2024 Harry Fielding Reid Medal: Norman A. Abrahamson
Abrahamson, adjunct professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Davis, and former engineering seismologist at Pacific Gas & Electric Co, receives the 2024 Reid Medal as a global leader in the field of probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA). Within the seismic hazard community, he is known for developing new methodologies as well as refining state-of-the-art practices in ground-motion modeling for crustal and subduction earthquakes; methodologies for assessing and scaling ground-motion time series for engineering applications; validation of 3D simulations; and treatment of uncertainty in PSHA. Across industry, academia and independent consulting, Abrahamson has offered essential expertise in assessing seismic hazard for nuclear power plants, dams, electric grids and substations, and office buildings, water and gas pipelines, high-speed rail lines, tunnels, and bridges across the world. In their commendations of Abrahamson, his colleagues emphasized his outstanding contributions to expanding gender diversity in the earthquake engineering field.
2024 Charles F. Richter Early Career Award: Doyeon Kim
Kim, a lecturer in planetary science in the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College London, receives the 2024 Richter Award for his scientific productivity across a variety of topics, including recent work on Martian seismology and his pioneering approaches to seismic imaging. Kim’s innovative research in seismic imaging and in finding novel ways to process seismic wave data collected from microearthquakes, earthquake coda, meteorite impacts, and oil industry active source experiments, among other sources, have greatly influenced Earth and Martian seismology. As a NASA InSight mission teams’ frontline scientist, Kim has applied his expertise in method development and observational study to Mars, looking at how seismic wave observations on the Red Planet can be applied—and sometimes misunderstood—in studies of Mars’ crustal structure.
2024 Frank Press Public Service Award: Harley M. Benz
Benz, a former U.S. Geological Survey technical coordinator for the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) and the director of the USGS National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), receives the 2024 Press Award for his work leading to profound improvements in how earthquake science is communicated to students, the media and decision makers. Benz is credited with helping to modernize USGS earthquake analyses, reporting procedures and facilities, in particular revising the data processing and operations at NEIC to become less labor intensive and more automated. His colleagues also noted that his innovative use of communication products demonstrates his committment to sharing earthquake science.
2024 Distinguished Service to SSA Award: Douglas Scott Dreger
Dreger, a professor of geophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, receives the 2024 Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding contributions as chair of the SSA Publications Committee from 2016 to 2022. Dreger oversaw the revision of publication policies for all three journals, including the author sharing policy, preprint policy and supplementary content policy, to ensure the rigor and standards necessary to maintain a healthy and navigable publishing program overall. In their commendations of Dreger, his colleagues said his work reinforced the reputation and financial performance of SSA’s publications at a time of rapid change in the publishing landscape.
The deadline for next year’s nominations will be 30 September 2024.