2009 IRIS Board of Directors Candidates

Michael Ritzwoller

Professor, Department of Physics
Director, Center for Imaging the Earth's Interior
University of Colorado at Boulder
michael.ritzwoller@colorado.edu

http://ciei.colorado.edu/ritzwoller_m

Education and Employment

• Physics Department Faculty, CU-Boulder, 1990-present
• Visiting Fellow, Institute of Theoretical Physics, UCSB, 1990
• Postdoctoral Associate, Harvard University, 1987-1990

• Ph.D. Earth Science Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, 1987
• M.S. Geophysics University of Wisconsin, 1982
• M.S. Philosophy University of Illinois, 1980
• B.A. Philosophy Marquette University, 1977

Service to IRIS and Seismological Community

• DMS Standing Committee (2007-present)
• Transportable Array Working Group (2005-2008)
• GSN Standing Committee (2004-2007), and CU-Boulder Institutional Representative (1994-2007)
• My research is dependent on data received from the IRIS DMS: from the GSN, PASSCAL, and USArray/TA programs. In particular, my group acquires much of the TA data as the basis for ambient noise and earthquake tomography.

Statement

IRIS is a model of a collaborative scientific enterprise and is a recognized leader in data observation, archival, and distribution. It's more than that, of course, as it has come to provide much of the glue that holds together the US seismological community and is the community's interdisciplinary and international public "face". Since its inception, IRIS has met challenges that were transformed into opportunities by its membership and professional staff. Now is no different; IRIS is facing significant new challenges and I'll mention just a couple. In the coming years IRIS will be faced with transitioning from facility building to providing more, different, and enhanced services that increasingly will need to respond to emerging community science planning efforts. Funding levels for even core programs, however, are marginal, and funding from non-traditional sources will need to be sought and secured. Interactions with related scientific communities (e.g., EarthScope, marine/OBS, polar, CTBT, international (e.g., China), hazards) will become increasingly important as these communities grow. I would welcome the opportunity to serve the IRIS community as a member of the Board of Directors and would gain inspiration from IRIS's history of capitalizing on challenges.