Seth Stein

Seth Avram Stein (born July 12, 1953, in Middletown, Connecticut) is an American geophysicist who has done research in plate tectonics, seismology, and space geodesy. He has also done work in public policy for coping with earthquake hazards.

Biography Seth Stein's sister became a lawyer, and his brother, Gil, became an archaeologist. Their father was Jerome Leon Stein, a professor of economics at Brown University.

After graduating in 1975 with a B.S. in Earth and planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), Seth Stein matriculated at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). There he graduated in geophysics with an M.S. in 1977 and a Ph.D. in 1978. He was inspired by Keiiti Aki at M.I.T. and by Hiroo Kanamori at Caltech. Stein's doctoral dissertation, supervised by Kanamori, is entitled I. Seismological study of the Ninetyeast and Chagos-Laccadive Ridges, Indian Ocean. II. Models for asymmetric and oblique spreading at midocean ridges. III. Attenuation studies using split normal modes. At Caltech, the three graduate students, Robert J. "Bob" Geller, Emile A. Okal, and Stein often worked together and were called by other geophysicists "The Gang of Three". As a postdoc from 1978 to 1979 Stein did research in geophysics at Stanford University. At Northwestern University he was an assistant professor from 1979 to 1983, an associate professor from 1983 to 1987, and a full professor from 1987 until his retirement in 2023 as professor emeritus. At Northwestern University, from 2006 to 2023 he held the Deering Professorship of Geological Sciences and chaired from 1989 to 1992 the Department of Geological Sciences.

In 1982 in Manhattan he married Carol Ann Geller, whom he first met when he was a graduate student at Caltech. She was one of the first women to receive a degree in geophysics from Caltech. Seth and Carol Stein have also collaborated extensively in public education and outreach. They, with 2 co-workers, developed an interpretive guide for a National Park Service journal and, with Abigail M. Foerstner, produced a YouTube video briefly explaining how the Midcontinent Rift controls the geology of the Lake Superior region.

Stein was a visiting professor in the Netherlands in 1998 and in Germany from 2013 to 2014. He was for the academic year 1993–1994 a visiting senior scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and from 1998 to 2000 the Scientific Director of the university NAVSTAR Consortium. He served on many national and international scientific committees. In 1986 he was an associate editor for the Journal of Geophysical Research, as well as Geophysical Research Letters. From 1986 to 1989 he was an editor for the Journal of Geophysical Research. In 2008 he was a design consultant for the Field Museum of Natural History's Nature Unleashed: Inside Natural Disasters exhibit, which became in 2009 a touring exhibit (in the USA and Canada) seen, over a number of years, by more than 1.5 million people. From 2019 to 2021 he was president of the natural hazards section of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Stein made important contributions to models of plate boundary changes involving microplates, He also did research on thermal evolution of the ocean floor and applications of geophysical data to understanding variations in orogeny of the Andes. The research of Seth Stein, Emile Okal, and other geophysics on the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake showed how its devastating, giant tsunami was generated and estimated similar dangers from other subduction zones; Stein investigated the consequences of post-glacial rebound for earthquakes. He and his collaborators used GPS data to make a comprehensive review of post-glacial rebound in North America and to provide a basis for improved models of mantle viscosity.

Stein was a trip leader for the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club.