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Seth Stein Wins the 2014 Price Medal

January 21, 2014

The Royal Astronomical Society has awarded Seth Stein the 2014 Price Medal for investigations of outstanding merit in solid earth geophysics, oceanography or planetary sciences.

The society wrote, “Prof. Stein has a 35-year history of ground-breaking achievements in Earth sciences of global importance in numerous fields including plate tectonics, seismology and space geodesy. In addition to an extraordinary plethora of service on international committees, he is an outstanding teacher, with much of his influence having been through his popular graduate-level geophysics textbook, Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes, and Earth Structure.

Perhaps one of his most influential recent scientific contributions has been his decade-long project to investigate intra-continental deformation and its relation to continental seismicity, focusing initially on the New Madrid zone in the Mississippi river valley in the United States. His observations led to a new model for intra-continental earthquakes and of aftershock productivity, changing our views of earthquake risk to the general public.

Prof. Stein’s model is currently being tested by studies of several regions, notably in China, Australia and northwest Europe, and is rapidly gaining widespread acceptance. In addition to his geophysical research, he takes a keen interest in communicating his science through popular science books and on how to improve earthquake-hazard mitigation policies.”

The Royal Astronomical Society was founded in London, England, in 1820, and encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science.