2016 Annual ReportIn April of 2016 the University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS) celebrated the 50th anniversary of its creation as an organizational unit within the University of Utah. We celebrated this milestone with a party honoring the founding director, Dr. Ken Cook, and the unveiling of a new historical display just outside the Rio Tinto Earthquake Information Center. The ceremony was well attended by current and former UUSS employees, colleagues in the College of Mines and Earth Sciences, representatives of sister agencies in the Utah Earthquake Program, members of Dr. Cook’s family, and many other friends of UUSS. Here’s to another 50 years of reducing the risk from earthquakes in Utah through research, education, and public service.
2016 was also a year of transition for UUSS. Our administrative manager, Martha Knowlton, retired after 14 years of service. We will miss Martha’s attention to detail, professionalism, and strong work ethic. UUSS communications specialist Sheryl Peterson, who has worked in various capacities for UUSS since 1989, also left in the fall of 2016. Sheryl’s competence, cheerfulness, and organizational skills will serve her well as she pursues a new career as director of advancement operations at Southern Virginia University. We will also miss Katherine Whidden, a research scientist, student mentor, and the UUSS public information officer, who left in 2016 (ending a five-year stint with UUSS) to travel the country in an RV with her husband, John. In other news, Cindi Meier, who worked at UUSS during 1994-1999, agreed to return as our new full-time administrative officer. In 2016, we also welcomed Dr. Hao Zhang to UUSS as a post-doctoral research scientist focusing on the detection and location of sequences of very small earthquakes.
We look forward to an exciting new year in 2017. I encourage you to visit our revamped web page at quake.utah.edu to stay up- to-date on our new initiatives and products as well as to nd out about the latest seismic activity in Utah. You can also follow UUSS on Twitter with the handle @UUSS_Quake_Info.
