| Authorised form of name | Press; Frank; geophysicist |
| Dates | 1924 - 2020 |
| Nationality | American |
| Place of birth | Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA |
| Date of birth | 04/12/1924 |
| Place of death | Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA |
| Date of death | 29/01/2020 |
| Occupation | geophysicist |
| Research field | Seismology |
| Geophysics |
| Activity | Education:
Samuel J. Tilden High School in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn 1941; City College of New York BS 1944; Columbia University MS, PhD 1949
Career:
Appointed to the faculty of Columbia, here he developed the Press-Ewing seismometer and cofounded the Lamont Geological Observatory (now the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory); Seismological Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) (1955); suceeded Beno Gutenberg as Director (1957); became Head of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (1965); science adviser and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (1977); elected president of the NAS (1981); retired from NAS AND founded the Washington Advisory Group (WAG) (1993).
Memberships:
RAS
Russian Academy of Sciences
Awards/Medals:
William Bowie Medal 1979
Japan Prize 1993
Vannevar Bush Award 1994
US National Medal of Science 1994
AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize 1994
Lomonosov Gold Medal 1997
Pick and Gavel Award of the Association of American State Geologists 2007 |
| Membership category | Foreign Member |
| Date of election | 27/06/1985 |
| Relationships | Spouse: Billie Kallick (m. 1946), (d. 2009).
Children: William H. Press of Austin, Texas, and Paula E. Press of Chapel Hill. |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 1474 |
| OtherInfo | Made a number of significant contributions in the areas of seismology and earthquake prediction, the structure of the Earth’s crust and mantle, and towards our understanding of the Moon’s composition.
Noted for his service in a variety of scientific leadership and advisory positions, including as Science Advisor to the President of the United States from 1977–1981, and as the President of the US National Academy of Sciences from 1981–1993. He has also written a number of popular earth science textbooks. |
| Source | The Royal Society Fellows Directory, Professor Frank Press ForMemRS, [https://royalsociety.org/people/frank-press-12119/]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT News, Michaela Jarvis, 7 February 2020, Frank Press, MIT geophysicist and U.S. science adviser, dies at 95, [URL: https://news.mit.edu/2020/frank-press-geophysicist-science-adviser-dies-0207; last accessed: 12/02/2025]
Science-AAS, Marcia McNutt, 6 March 2020, Frank Press (1924–2020), URL: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abb2626; last accessed: 12/02/2025]
PNAS, Vol. 117 | No. 17, Thomas H. Jordan, 16 April 2020, Frank Press, A life of magnitude, [URL: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2004812117; last accessed: 12/02/2025] |
| Code | NA4115 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1985/43 | Press, Frank: certificate of election to the Royal Society | 1985 |
| IM/003652 | Press, Frank | nd |