James R. Rice awarded the Harry Fielding Reid Medal

Cambridge, Mass. - April 20, 2012 - James R. Rice, Mallinckrodt Professor of Engineering Sciences and Geophysics, has been awarded the Harry Fielding Reid Medal by the Seismological Society of America (SSA).

The medal, the highest honor granted by the SSA, is awarded no more than once a year for outstanding contributions in seismology and earthquake engineering.

Rice's research investigates the mechanics of earth and environmental processes, involving problems in stressing, deformation, fracture, and flow in the world of seismology and tectonophysics.

His studies focus on the part that fluids play in deformations arising from earthquakes, landslides, glacial movements, and tsunamis. Rice's studies have highlighted the mechanical processes involved in seismic activity. His models of earthquake sequences and interactions along faults have had significant impact on the analysis of earthquake cycles.

Rice received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. from Lehigh University. Prior to coming to Harvard, Rice was a faculty member at Brown University. He has receive numerous previous honors, including the Louis Néel Medal (2012), the Panetti-Ferrari International Prize for Applied Mechanics (2008), and the Maurice A. Biot Medal (2007). He holds elected fellowships of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Geophysical Union, and memberships in the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences.

Rice will receive the medal at the SSA 2013 Annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.