Frank Press

Frank Press was an American geophysicist who made foundational contributions to seismology and later became one of the United States' most influential science policy leaders. Press designed long-period seismographs capable of detecting Earth's normal modes of oscillation, the whole planet's very slow, large-scale vibrations, and achieved the first confirmed detection of these modes following the massive 1960 earthquake in Chile. Press contributed to lunar seismology through his involvement with the seismometers deployed on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, and he co-authored influential studies on how elastic waves travel through layered geological media. Press served as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981, during which he sent the president a memo addressing fossil fuels and climate change, and he later served two consecutive terms as president of the National Academy of Sciences, from 1981 to 1993, advising four different United States presidents over the course of his career.