Haitian Scientific Society 2020 Seminar Series

Precursor Fusion: A new Approach to Earthquake Forecasting

Dr. Pierre Richard Cornely
(Eastern Nazarene)

Abstract:

Earthquake forecasting has been a very challenging problem in over a hundred years. The problem demands inter-, cross-, and multi-disciplinary collaboration across all of STEM and beyond. Scientists working on this problem have been slow to open up to a new approach to scientific research in the area, but in the last 20 years, there has been noticeable progress.

Dr. Friedemann Freund from NASA Ames developed a unified platform for thinking about earthquakes which has open the doors to some very creative and promising approaches to earthquake forecasting, especially in the last seven to ten years.

In this presentation, we look at earthquakes, the unified approach proposed by Dr. Freund and we place this development within the context of work done at Eastern Nazarene College (ENC) in the last seven years. We will propose a general view and approach to earthquake forecasting, provide a simple example, and end with a heuristic earthquake forecasting platform for the future.

Two hundred years ago, hurricanes, tempest, cyclones, blizzards, and extreme cold and hot temperatures will hit our cities and towns around the world without warning. Today, we can accurately forecast all of these events, leading to preparedness, and saving thousands of lives.

The objective of this presentation is to provide an overall feel for the potential of earthquake forecasting, just like current weather forecasting, around the world in the near future.

Biographical Sketch:

Pierre-Richard Cornely received the Doctorate of Engineering degree from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell in Electrical Engineering with a thesis in Geophysics. In the last 20+ years, Pierre-Richard has been an entrepreneur, as President and CEO of 374’s Electric Power Corporation, a research scientist and systems engineer at Raytheon and Precursor SPC, and an academic at the Physics and Engineering Department at Eastern Nazarene College of Quincy, MA. Pierre-Richard is currently the Science and Technology Division Chair at Eastern Nazarene College, where he is responsible for nine departments: Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, Chemistry, Biology, Environmental Science, Forensic Science, and the Health Sciences.

Date and time:

Saturday, November 28, 2020

12:45 PM—2:30 PM