David J. Wald ’84
Majors: Physics and Geology
Home: Evergreen, Col.
Profession: Real-Time Seismic Products Research and Development Coordinator & Supervisory Research Geophysicist, Central Geologic Hazards Team, U. S. Geological Survey; Adjunct Associate Professor in Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines.

A recognized authority on earthquakes, David Wald will deliver the R.O. and Vera Bloomer Lecture at the fifth triennial Geology Alumni Conference at St. Lawrence, April 21-24. Dr. Wald is the Seismological Society of America Distinguished Lecturer this year. After graduating form St. Lawrence, he earned his M.S. in geophysics at the University of Arizona and his doctorate, also in geophysics, at the California Institute of Technology.

Dr. Wald developed and manages both the USGS Advanced National Seismic System “ShakeMap” and the Community Internet Intensity Maps (popularly “Did You Feel it?”) systems for post-earthquake response and information. He is heavily involved in real-time seismology including the generation of real-time ground motion shaking and intensity maps for damaging earthquakes, and he is involved in management, operations, and developments at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden , Col. , and the new Advanced National Seismic System being built by the USGS.

He has been associate editor of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Associated Press, PBS, CNN, the Learning Channel and NPR are among media outlets calling upon his expertise in earthquake ground motions, hazards and damage. He is currently the Seismological Society of America and Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (SSA/IRIS) Distinguished Lecturer, for 2004.