Frank Press (December 4, 1924 – January 29, 2020) was an American
geophysicist.[1] He was an advisor to four U.S. presidents, and later served two consecutive terms as president of the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences (1981–1993). He was the author of 160 scientific papers and co-author of the textbooks Earth and Understanding Earth.
In the early 1950s, Press turned to
seismology, co-authoring with Ewing and
Jardetzky a seminal monograph on elastic waves in layered media. In 1957, Press was recruited by
Caltech to succeed founder
Beno Gutenberg as director of the
Seismological Laboratory, a position in which he remained until 1965. The appointment was controversial in that it passed over both
Hugo Benioff and
Charles Richter, then the laboratory's senior professors, for a much younger outsider.
Press' accomplishments in this period include the design of a long-period
seismograph, and the first detection of the Earth's normal modes of
oscillation ("bell ringing"), excited by the
Great Chilean earthquake, a pioneering application of digital processing to seismic recordings. Press was also closely involved in the construction of a lunar seismograph, first deployed by the
Apollo 11 astronauts (see
Lunar seismology).
Later career
In 1965, Press moved to
MIT as department head of Earth and Planetary Sciences, where, with significant support from philanthropist
Cecil H. Green, he revitalized what had been an overly traditional geology department by hiring new faculty members. He remained at MIT until 1976, and during this time, his work included collaborations with
Vladimir Keilis-Borok and
Leon Knopoff on computer pattern matching techniques that could be applied to
earthquake prediction.
In 1996, Press co-founded WAG (the Washington Advisory Group, later known as the Advisory Group at Huron), a global consulting company with clients that included approximately 50 leading universities. WAG played a notable role all phases of the founding of
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in
Thuwal,
Saudi Arabia.[4] Press chaired that university's international advisory committee until 2010.
Pick and Gavel Award, Association of American State Geologists (2007)
Publications
Press, F. and R. Siever. (2001). Understanding Earth, 3rd edition. W.H. Freeman.
LCCN00-35391ISBN0716735040
Press, F. (1998). The role of geoscientists in providing credible advice to government officials. Abstracts with Programs –
Geological Society of America, 30(7): 247.
Press, F. and Allen, C. (1995). Patterns of seismic release in the Southern California region. Journal of Geophysical Research, 100(B4): 6421–6430.
Press, F. (1995). Needed: Coherent budgeting for science and technology. Science, 270(5241): 1448-1450.
Press, F. (1994). The restructuring of science in research universities in the post-industrial society. Abstracts with Programs – Geological Society of America, 26(7): 154.
Press, F. (1991). Geoscience education as viewed from the
National Academy of Sciences. Journal of Geological Education, 39(2): 98-100.
Press, F. (1991). Science and the public welfare. Earthquakes and Volcanoes, 22(3): 93.
Press, F. (1990). The role of education in technological competitiveness. International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life Long Learning, 1(4): 311–318. DOI: 10.1504/IJCEELL.1991.030366.
Press, F. (1988). An international decade for natural disaster reduction. USGS Open-File Report No. 88-0361, pp. 53–61.
Press, F. and R. Siever. (1986). Earth. W.H. Freeman.
Press, F. (1984). Science and creationism. Geotimes, 29(5): 9.
Press, F. (1981). Science and technology in the White House, 1977 to 1980; Part 1. Science, 211(4478): 139–145.
Press, F. (1981). Science and technology in the White House, 1977 to 1980; Part 2. Science, 211(4479): 249–256.
Press, F. (1975.) Earthquake Prediction. Scientific American, 232(5): 14–23.
Press, F. (1974). Structure of the Earth and Moon: A Comparison. Eos,Transactions,
American Geophysical Union, 55(4): 323.
Press, F. and D.T. Griggs. (1959). Probing the earth with nuclear explosions. Rand Corporation. Issued by the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as UCRL-6013.