Thomas Heaton is a Professor of Engineering Seismology at the California Institute of Technology with a joint position in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science and the Division of Geological and Planetary Science. He was a Research Geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in their Pasadena Office from 1979 until July 1995, at which time he was the USGS Project Chief of the Southern California Seismic Network. He was the Scientist in Charge of the USGS Pasadena office from 1985 until October of 1992 and he was also the Coordinator of the USGS earthquake program in southern California. He received a Meritorious Service award from the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1995 and he is a past President of the Seismological Society of America. He has written numerous research papers in the fields of earthquake ground motions, earthquake source physics, earthquake hazards in the Pacific Northwest, earthquake warning systems, and tidal triggering of earthquakes. He received a B.S. in Physics from Indiana University, and a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the California Institute of Technology.