Brian Tucker

Who is Brian Tucker?

Brian E. Tucker is a seismologist specialising in disaster prevention.

He holds a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, an M.A. in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a B.A. in Physics from Pomona College.

Dr. Tucker has devoted his life to realizing a world of self-reliant communities that can continue their economic, political and cultural development unimpeded by natural disasters. For more than sixteen years, Dr. Tucker has created exhibits, organized workshops and symposia around the world, printed multilingual reports and written/edited three books to raise awareness of geologic threats to communities from Tajikistan to Ecuador. Beyond education, he has drafted earthquake mitigation plans and has supported mason training and the retrofitting of schools, leaving a long-term legacy of natural hazard risk reduction in more than twenty countries.

After observing the tragic consequences of an earthquake in Tajikistan, in 1991 Dr. Tucker founded GeoHazards International, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based nonprofit organization focused on reducing death and injury caused by earthquakes in the world's most vulnerable communities. Dr. Tucker and his team have developed and applied methods that will save lives in developing countries around the world. They work through a global network of people dedicated to reducing the risks of death and injury caused by earthquakes and natural disasters in needy, at-risk countries, by sharing and promoting civil engineering principles and connecting local experts, engineers, scientists and government officials with their counterparts abroad.