Sarah Minson spends her days at her computer modeling earthquakes and their sources as a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geophysicist. With no fieldwork and no lab experiments, it’s not something that will make the agency’s brochure, she joked. But she’s been drawn to the field since she was an undergraduate.
“I really just wanted to do something fun with math and physics,” she said. “And there just seemed like nothing more interesting and exciting than earthquakes and the amazing things that the Earth does.”
After earning a doctoral degree in geophysics from the California Institute of Technology, Minson started a 2-year Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Earthquake Hazards Program. She’s been with USGS ever since, collaborating on earthquake source modeling, hazard mapping, and early-warning systems. In her first year on staff, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed on young scientists by the U.S. government.
Minson has big questions about what can and can’t be known about earthquakes. Geophysicists can only infer what’s happening belowground when a fault slips, and big uncertainties limit our understanding of how quakes start and progress. “I find it extremely interesting and extremely important,” she said of her big-picture research.
“Everyone [at USGS] is on the same team, supports each other, and supports each other’s science so that we can go farther together than we could go alone.”
When discussing her career, Minson is quick to shout out her colleagues. One of her favorite quotes comes from Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus, two Stat columnists who wrote that science is “the teamiest of team sports.”
That’s what Minson loves about her career. Many of her projects sprouted organically from questions and conversations with coworkers. She also volunteers as an earthquake scientific response coordinator for Northern California, coordinating between USGS scientists and emergency managers. Collaboration is an everyday element of her work.
“Everyone [at USGS] is on the same team, supports each other, and supports each other’s science so that we can go farther together than we could go alone,” she said.
—J. Besl (@J_Besl), Science Writer
This profile is part of a special series in our August 2024 issue on science careers.
Citation: Besl, J. (2024), Sarah Minson: A collaborative quake career, Eos, 105, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EO240326. Published on 25 July 2024.
Text © 2024. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.
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