SCEC4: The Final Day

To the SCEC Community,

Today is January 31, 2017. At the end of this day, the Cooperative Agreements with NSF and the USGS that have funded the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC4) for the past five very successful years will terminate. It is tradition for me to write a note at the end of each SCEC funding period.

As I write this note today, it is truly unbelievable to me that twenty-six years will have passed since we began back in 1991.

I want to pay special thanks to the following individuals and groups from the past five years:

1. The SCEC Director, Tom Jordan, and Co-Director, Greg Beroza. Tom and Greg guide the center to tackle the most current and critically wicked problems in earthquake science.

2. The SCEC board members who represent both our core and participating institutions, and the board liaisons from the USGS. They provide valuable input to the center research goals.

3. SCEC4 benefited from the excellent advice of our Advisory Council. I thank all its members who served over the past 5 years. The chairs of the AC were especially dedicated. SCEC4 owes a special thanks to chairs Jeff Freymueller, Gail Atkinson, and John Vidale. I really enjoyed working with you.

4. The center core science program has been guided by the Planning Committee, chaired by Co-Director Greg Beroza as chair and Vice-Chair Judi Chester. The SCEC PC is aided by members of the SCEC/USGS Joint Planning Committee. Dozens of scientists gave a lot of their time to review nearly a thousand proposals over the past five years and develop the annual science collaboration plan, the annual meeting program, and a major section on research accomplishments in the annual report. The community owes all of you a huge thank you.

5. The center CEO program is ably led by Mark Benthien and internationally recognized for its work. Mark's team includes John Marquis, Jason Ballmann, and Sharon Sandow. And for most of SCEC4 Bob deGroot. CEO employs dozens of undergraduate (and a few graduate students) that play a critical role in its operation. SCEC CEO plays a major role in the Earthquake Country Alliance, in K-12 education and teacher training, and coordinates the annual ShakeOut event worldwide.

6. The center information technology group is led by Phil Maechling. Phil's team includes Kevin Milner, John Yu, David Gill, Fabio Silva, Edric Pauk, Scott Callaghan (telecommuting from St. Louis), and for most of SCEC4 Masha Liukis. This team is a world leader in software development for earthquake science research.

7. We welcomed a new member to the admin team with the arrival of Christine Goulet as the Executive Science Director for Special Projects. Christine is guiding the science of our geoinformatics, SI2, OEF, and Central California projects as well as developing new projects that bridge the interface between earthquake scientists and engineers.

8. Our work was made easier by the strong support from our program officers at NSF (first Greg Anderson and now Maggie Benoit) and the USGS (first Elizabeth Lemersal and now Jill Franks). I have enjoyed working with you and look forward to continuing that working relationship in SCEC5.

You all know that I (and the directors and entire center) benefit from a great administrative team. Much of the efforts that you attribute to me were actually carried out by the staff over the last five years: Tran Huynh, Karen Young, Deborah Gormley, and lots of undergraduate students. My deepest appreciation to you for your help and, more importantly, for your friendship.

The SCEC collaboration works because hundreds of earthquake scientists and engineers at every stage in the academic/professional pipeline, from undergraduate student level to very senior scientists (even emeriti faculty), give their time and effort to the center. SCEC is a unique collaboration that is now being copied in other countries such as New Zealand with the QuakeCore group. Jordan, Beroza, and I (along with Walter Mooney of the USGS) spent the week before AGU in Beijing making presentations on SCEC science and administrative structure to several institutes of the China Earthquake Administration who want to pursue a SCEC-like collaboration there. It is a very rewarding feeling that others want to emulate us.

Tomorrow we start SCEC5, but we here in the admin group are prepared for a phenomenon that occurs only every five years. Over the next 3-4 months we have to shut down SCEC4 (with the closing of dozens of subcontracts, payment of final invoices, receipt of of final PI technical reports by March 15, and preparation/submission of the final SCEC4 report to NSF and USGS by the end of April) and in parallel fire up SCEC5 (with the first board meeting in two weeks, final approval of the 2017 science collaboration plan, sending notices of award/declines on nearly 170 proposals, and beginning the process of awarding over 100 new subcontracts). And on top of all this we have an active director search in progress (with the help of the USC Earth Sciences Department)! We are fortunate to have a very nice home here at USC where SCEC HQ is located to do our work. We will be busy.

As I wrote five years ago today, SCEC has been the greatest experience of my professional life and working with all of you has been the highlight of my career. I continue to be amazed at how much fun it is.

But this tradition for me has come to an end. I will retire sometime before the end of SCEC5’s second year and Tran Huynh will assume my role. I know she will keep everyone aware of these historical moments.

Cheers and thanks to all of you, John

P.S. Once again, coming tomorrow: SCEC5.