Dr. Lucy Jones, known to many Southern Californians as the voice of calm after the earthquake, announced Friday that she is retiring from her position with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Jones, aka the Earthquake Lady, said in a tweet that she will keep her appointment as a seismologist with Caltech. A leading expert on earthquakes who often provided the public with information after the shaking, Jones has been a seismologist with the USGS since 1983.
"I'm really grateful to have had the chance to do what I've done," Jones said.
Jones has served as Science Advisor for Risk Reduction in the Natural Hazards Mission of the US Geological Survey. She led an initiative with the city of Los Angeles in 2014 to develop solutions to the area's seismic vulnerabilities.
"When the big one hits, people will be living because of the work that she has done," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told the Times.
The author of more than 100 research papers earned a degree in Chinese language and literature from Brown University in 1976 and Ph. D. in geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981.
She became a familiar face in the wake of Southern California earthquakes, providing interviews to explain the seismic event and what residents should do to prepare for the next one. A lasting image of Jones and her dedication to her role was caught on camera near quarter-century ago when she held her 1-year-old on live television during a post-quake interview.
"My husband was had actually been home with the kids, I was responding to the 4.6," Jones said. "The magnitude-6.1 happened, he brought in the kids. He handed me the baby in the middle of the interview, and we just did it because who has a baby sitter on call at 10 o'clock at night?"
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Jones has hosted Reddit events about earthquakes and even dropped knowlege during the premiere of "San Andreas," providing a real-time fact check of the movie starring Duane "The Rock" Johnson. Jones, who has nearly 16,000 followers, tweeted candid reactions and separated fact and fiction about the blockbuster depicts the San Andreas fault ripping open during a greater-than-9 magnitude earthquake.
"Lucy brings magnetism to what is normally a dull subject: preparedness," Paul Schulz, CEO of the American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles, told Smithsonian Magazine in a February 2012 article.
Jones told the Los Angeles Times that she will help develop science-based policies on climate change, tsunamis and other natural disasters. After her last day at the USGS on March 30, she can start raising money to create a center that bridges science and public policy, according to The Times. She can also partner with cities on disaster issues the way she worked on earthquakes with Los Angeles.
