Quake Researcher’s Job Has Its Share of Faults

Like most Southern Californians who experienced the Northridge earthquake of Jan. 17, 1994, Andrea Donnellan was extremely busy after the 6.7 temblor. In a 15-hour work marathon, Donnellan checked electronic receivers at several locations around Southern California, felt the rumblings of an aftershock at a mountain site not far from the epicenter, and in the evening answered reporters’ questions at a Caltech press conference.

“It was exciting,” says the 33-year-old geophysicist. “I had a weird mix of emotions. All this bad stuff had happened, but we were getting all this good data.”

Donnellan is a research scientist who studies earthquakes, specifically the slight movements of the Earth’s crust that may provide clues to where and when seismic shifts will happen. It’s information that’s gathered through a network of navigation satellites, called the Global Positioning System, and earthly receivers. She receives the data, analyzes it, and creates computer models that help us gain a greater understanding of how earthquakes work and where strain is building.

Donnellan doesn’t foresee the day when scientists will be able to predict earthquakes with certainty.

“It may be feasible, but nobody’s figured out how to do it yet,” she says.

Donnellan believes the work she and others do will help identify the most likely places quakes could happen. That way, builders can avoid erecting sensitive structures, such as bridges, hospitals or universities, in high-risk areas.

Earthquakes weren’t always Donnellan’s specialty. In college, the Midwestern native was fascinated by Antarctica’s ice sheets. She spent three seasons in those harsh climes. At the time, the geology major at Ohio State University was with a scientific team hunting for evidence that Antarctica’s ice slabs may be slowly disintegrating, perhaps due to global warming. There’s no Holiday Inn at the southern pole: Donnellan called a tent home, boiled snow for drinking water and put up with below-zero temperatures--all in the name of science.

“It wasn’t bad,” she insists.

She came to Caltech as a graduate student to continue studying glaciers. But before long, she switched her study to the Earth’s movements and quakes, a logical move, says Donnellan, because of its relevance to Southern California life.

“Getting into the earthquake field was a natural flow,” she says. “All the work I did on the ice was surveying, measuring the motions. I just switched to measuring motion in the ground.”

Her work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena often takes her into the wilds. Late last year she trekked to Mongolia to check out a fault that resembles the San Andreas. Donnellan credits her advance in the highly competitive, male-dominated world of science to her perseverance.

“I was brought up to finish what I start,” she says. She’s also had the emotional and financial support of her parents, medical doctors who encouraged her childhood scientific interest.

“My dad was willing to pay for my schooling, however long it took,” she says.

Her quest for higher achievement continues. Donnellan’s ultimate goal: to become an astronaut. In recent years, she interviewed for one of the coveted spots in the space program, but she wasn’t chosen. She’ll keep trying. She’s pregnant with her first child and sees no reason why motherhood should interfere with her ambitions.

Last year, Donnellan was among 60 up-and-comers to win the first annual Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, recognizing potential for leadership. That came with a $500,000, five-year research grant.

For women who might be considering a career in science, Donnellan offers this: “Don’t listen to the negative stuff. Do what you want to do.”

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Name: Andrea Donnellan

Job: Research scientist at the Satellite Geodesy and Geodynamics Group of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena.

Education: Bachelor’s in geology, Ohio State University, doctorate in geophysics, California Institute of Technology, National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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