I received my BSc in Civil Engineering from Tufts University, USA, and an MSc in Civil Engineering from Stanford University, USA. I obtained a PhD in Geophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, after practicing as a construction engineer for the US Army Corps of Engineers for almost 10 years, during which time I obtained my certification as a Professional Engineer. In 2003 I was appointed Assistant Professor of Geophysics at Western University, Canada, and was the NSERC and Aon Benfield/ICLR Industrial Research Chair in Earthquake Hazard from 2006 through 2011. 

Today I am Professor of Geological Sciences and Director of the Earth Science and Observation Center (ESOC) at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado.  My research program aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the processes which govern natural and anthropogenic hazards and, in particular, those which generate earthquakes, and thus improve the associated estimates of the regional seismic hazard.  I am very interested in big data and analysis of remote sensing data such as space-based Global Positioning System (GPS) data, differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR), seismicity and gravity, in order to provide critical information on the nature and scale of these hazards. Significant contributions from my research include development of the first of a new generation of seismicity measures and effective inversions for the sources of surface deformation associated with earthquake and volcanic hazard as well as anthropogenic signals.