Frank Press Wins SSA's First Public Service Award

Abstract

To honor his lifetime of exemplary public service, the SSA Board of Directors has decided to award the Society's first Public Service Award to Frank Press, a Director of the Washington Advisory Group in Washington, D.C. Prof. Press began as a seismologist at Columbia (Ph.D. 1949) and joined the faulty of Caltech in 1955. Three years later he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences for his scientific contributions in a number of areas including earthquake seismology, seismic-wave propagation, crust and mantle structure, and lunar constitution. He became Director of the Caltech Seismological Lab in 1957, and in 1965 he moved to MIT as Chairman of the Department of Geology and Geophysics. Recognition of Prof. Press' scientific leadership soon led to calls for public service, which he answered, joining President Kennedy's Science Advisory Committee. “Between 1959 and 1963, he represented the United States at four nuclear-test ban conferences in Geneva and Moscow, where seismological monitoring of atomic tests was a key issue. In this assignment he showed consummate skill in handling critical negotiations with formidable adversaries” …