David Wald
David Wald is a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, and is on the geophysics Faculty at the Colorado School of Mines. Wald is involved in management, operations, and developments at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden and the USGS Advanced National Seismic System. He developed and manages ShakeMaps and Did You Feel it? He is also responsible for developing other systems for post-earthquake response and information, as well as pre-earthquake mitigation. Those systems include ShakeCast, PAGER, the Earthquake Notification Service, and rapid finite-faulting modeling.
Wald earned his bachelor’s in physics and geology at St. Lawrence University in New York, his master’s in geophysics at the University of Arizona, and his PhD in Geophysics from the California Institute of Technology.
Wald has advised dozens of post-doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate student research projects at both the California Institute of Technology and the Colorado School of Mines. His scientific interests include the estimation of rupture process from complex, modern, and historic earthquakes using combined geodetic, teleseismic, and strong motion data; waveform modeling and inversion; analysis of ground motion hazards; and earthquake source physics and earthquake loss modeling.
Wald has been a distinguished lecturer and associate editor for the Seismological Society of America (SSA) and serves on the Society’s board of directors. He is editor for Earthquake Spectra. Most recently, Wald was awarded the SSA 2009 Frank Press Public Service award.
PowerPoint Presentation
Preparing for Disaster Using Scenarios: The Earthquake Experience
Resources by David Wald from the Natural Hazards Library Staff
Using ShakeMap and ShakeCast to Prioritize Post-Earthquake Dam Inspections
Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics IV, 2008