Lucy Jones

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lucy Jones has been a seismologist with the US Geological Survey and a Visiting Research Associate at the Seismological Laboratory of Caltech since 1983. She is currently serving as the Chief Scientist of the USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project for Southern California, developing a new program to integrate hazards science in urban areas with economic analysis and emergency response to increase community resiliency to natural disasters. She is also a Commissioner of the California Seismic Safety Commission, which advises the governor and legislature on seismic safety, by appointment of Gov. Davis in 2002 and reappointment by Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2005 and serves on the California Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council.

Dr. Lucile M. Jones is the first face most Americans see after an earthquake strikes southern California, as she is known for answering questions from the press following any significant earthquake. Dr. Jones even held a press conference with her sleeping child in her arms, asking that the press be quiet, which they did.

Dr. Jones has authored over 80 papers on research seismology with primary interest in the physics of earthquakes, foreshocks and earthquake hazard assessment, and the seismotectonics (earthquake-producing geologic structures) of southern California.

She has received numerous awards, including the Alquist Award from the California Earthquake Safety Foundation, the Shoemaker Award for Lifetime Achievements in Science Communication from the USGS, and the 2007 Award of Merit from the Los Angeles County Emergency Preparedness Commission. Dr. Jones received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese Language and Literature, Magna Cum Laude, from Brown University in 1976 and a Ph. D. in geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981. She is a past Secretary of the Seismology Section of the American Geophysical Union, past Director and past Chair of the Publications Committee of the Seismological Society of America. Dr. Jones, a fourth-generation resident of southern California, currently lives in La Cañada, California. She is married to a fellow seismologist, Egill Hauksson, and they have two sons.