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Listening to the Earth

Gregory Beroza lecturing
Photo credit: Stacy Geiken

Gregory Beroza

Wayne Loel Professor
Geophysics

“Ever since I was a kid I assumed I would be a scientist,” said Greg Beroza, the Wayne Loel Professor of geophysics. “I grew up in the post-Sputnik era. It was just sort of the spirit of the times that being a scientist was an important thing to do.”

Beroza teaches courses in seismology and studies how earthquakes work and how strongly they shake the ground. His research has included constructing “virtual earthquakes” to forecast the strength of shaking in cities like Los Angeles and Tokyo, measuring the strength of manmade earthquakes, and developing a new “Shazam for earthquakes” data-mining approach to detect previously overlooked microquakes. “My research group is data-driven – we let the Earth speak to us,” he said. “Of course, we have to be listening in the right way.”

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