Graduate Fellowships

The UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory (BSL) is pleased to announce two Graduate Student Fellowships.

Tocher Fellowship
Don Tocher (1926-1979) was a prominent seismologist who worked at the Berkeley Seismographic Stations (former name of BSL) between 1956 and 1964. He contributed to the installation of the first regional seismographic network telemetered by commercial telephone lines. Berkeley is to this day a leader in regional seismic network developments.

Stock photo of Campanille.

Byerly Fellowship
Perry Byerly (1897-1978) joined the faculty at UC Berkeley in 1925. He was appointed by Professor Andrew Lawson to oversee the seismographic stations in Berkeley and at Mount Hamilton, the first permanent seismic stations in the western hemisphere. Byerly became the first director of the Berkeley Seismographic Stations (former name of BSL) in 1950 and the seismic networks operated by BSL have been growing ever since.


These honorific fellowships are awarded to students with interests in seismology and earthquake studies in recognition of academic excellence and potential. The fellowships provide one year of full financial support and an additional research fund.

Students with interests in seismology and earthquake studies who would like to work with faculty and researchers at the BSL should apply to the graduate program in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Students applying to the department with appropriate research interests with then be considered for the fellowships. The application process for the graduate program can be found on the department website.