Thomas Heaton

Thomas H. Heaton serves as Professor Emeritus of Engineering Seismology at Caltech - California Institute of Technology, holding joint appointments in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences and the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. He earned his B.S. in Physics from Indiana University in 1972 and his Ph.D. in Geophysics from Caltech in 1978. Early in his career, he worked as a Senior Seismologist at Dames and Moore in 1979. Subsequently, at the U.S. Geological Survey Pasadena Field Office, he advanced to Research Geophysicist, Scientist in Charge from 1985 to 1992, and Project Chief of the Southern California Seismic Network from 1992 to 1995. His Caltech appointments include Visiting Associate in Geophysics (1980-1991), Faculty Associate (1991-1995), Lecturer in Geophysics (1993-1994), Lecturer in Engineering Seismology (1995), Professor (1995-2020), and Professor Emeritus since 2020. From 2008, he directed Caltech's Earthquake Engineering Research Laboratory.

In the field of geoscience, Heaton's research centers on engineering seismology and earthquake rupture physics. His academic interests encompass earthquake source physics and crustal deformation mechanics, the physics of strong ground motions during large earthquakes and their impact on buildings, building motions, seismic early warning systems, and seismic network design. He pioneered developments such as numerical simulations of ground motions in near-source regions, inversion methodologies for finite-fault rupture models, seismic hazard assessments for the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and the concept of slip pulses in earthquake ruptures (Heaton, 1990). His 1985 proposal for a Seismic Computerized Alert Network laid groundwork for modern systems like ShakeAlert. Heaton coordinated USGS research in southern California, supervised the 250-station Southern California Seismic Network, contributed to TriNet and CUBE projects for real-time data, and led the Community Seismic Network. As President of the Seismological Society of America (1993-1995), he advanced the field. Key publications include "Inversion of strong ground motion and teleseismic waveform data for the fault rupture history of the 1979 Imperial Valley, California, earthquake" (Hartzell and Heaton, 1983), "Near-source ground motion and its effects on flexible buildings" (Hall et al., 1995), and "Relationships between peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity, and modified Mercalli intensity in California" (Wald et al., 1999). His contributions have profoundly influenced earthquake engineering and hazard mitigation.