Tributes to Bruce Bolt

Jim Dewey

Previous tributes have done a wonderful job of conveying the breadth of Bruce Bolt’s scientific achievements, his role in promoting earthquake safety, and his significant influence on earthquake engineering and global seismology. They show the seeming paradox of a man who was known both for formality and for enjoyable and easy conversation over an incredible range of topics. I was fortunate in having Bruce as my Ph.D. advisor in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. I’d like to elaborate on several of his characteristics as a scientist and mentor.

Bruce had a deep respect for scientific tradition. He took the place of Perry Byerly as Director of the UC Seismographic Stations. Perry had established Berkeley as a seismological center during his decades as Director and as Professor in the Department. Upon retirement, Perry asked to have his office moved to a site remote from the Seismographic Stations office, in order that he could avoid the temptation to offer unwanted advice to Bruce on running the Stations. Bruce nonetheless consulted Perry frequently, directed students to consult with Perry, and was proud of the traditions that Byerly had established.

Bruce greatly valued the systematic work of monitoring and cataloging central and northern California earthquakes through the Seismographic Stations. Most of the seismology students from my era, no matter what their research interests, were involved as co-authors of a couple of the quarterly bulletins of the Seismographic Stations. As a student, at times I considered working on the Bulletins of the Seismographic Stations to be a chore with no evident redeeming educational value. Subsequently I came to view involvement in the whole set of tasks associated with running an earthquake observatory, including the preparation of routine bulletins, to be one of the strengths of the Berkeley seismological education.

Bruce expected his Ph. D. students to meet with him weekly to report on the progress of their research. I remember one meeting, three years into my graduate career, as particularly decisive. At about that time, I had submitted a publication that concluded my involvement in one area of research, and I had plans to use a new hypocenter determination method in a study of South American earthquakes that would form the basis of my Ph. D. thesis. Bruce and I were doing some consulting on the seismicity of the Venezuela Andes. But I was also feeling stale from too much time in the office and wondering if I couldn’t adjust my program so as to be able to do more fieldwork. At that weekly meeting, Bruce asked me if I would consider actually going to the Venezuela Andes and setting up seismographs to locally record earthquakes that would otherwise be recorded only at great distance. That was beyond any adjustment I had envisioned, and it focused both my research and my mind. Bruce scraped together money for the trip, and I went down for a couple months with two nominally portable seismographs; he later got a small grant to transfer ownership of the seismographs to the Venezuelan seismological institute. Looking back, I realize that less dramatic, day-to-day interaction with Bruce was cumulatively more rewarding than the single suggestion of doing field-work in Venezuela, but I still treasure the memory of that meeting both for its effect on me and as an example of the “go for it” aspect of Bruce’s personality.

Bruce Bolt | Tributes |

Berkeley Seismological Lab
215 McCone Hall, UC Berkeley
Berkeley CA 94720-4760
www@seismo.berkeley.edu