by Zhu Chuanzhen and Wu Zhongliang

It was sad to learn that Prof. Bruce Bolt, honorary professor of the University of California, Berkeley, and president of IASPEI from 1980 to 1983, passed away on July 21, 2005 at the age of 75.

It is well known that the scientific contribution of Prof. Bolt covers a wide range, from the structure of the inner core to seismic strong ground motion. To us, as well as many people, one of the significant contributions of Prof. Bolt is the contribution of bridging: Bridging computation and seismology, he was one of the pioneers in the works of digital broadband seismology and computational geophysics; He played an important role in bridging the study of seismology and earthquake engineering; Being a famous seismologist working in a seismically active region, Prof. Bolt also contributed much to the education, training, and public understandings of the reduction of earthquake disasters, bridging scientific communities and the public.

Chinese colleagues still remember that after the 1983 Coalinga M6.5 earthquake, Bruce was the first driving to the epicenter region. Arriving at the epicenter region in the evening, aftershocks still kept happening. Making use of the time when the sky was still not very dark, he went to the investigation of ground ruptures. It is somehow unexpected that this time no significant ground ruptures were observed. Bridging this field observation and the study of seismological recordings in his laboratory raised an interesting problem in seismology, and this problem is still under discussion at the present time.

Prof. Bolt is an old friend of Chinese seismologists. Quite a few Chinese seismologists had the experiences to work together with him in UC Berkeley. Everybody was impressed by his wide research interest, deep understanding of the scientific problems, and friendly personality, as well as his humorous words.

He visited China in the 1970s, being one of the pioneers bridging the seismologists in China and the United States. After the icebreaking visit in the 1970s, he came to China for many times, contributing much to the collaboration between the scientists in both countries. The last time when he visited the Institute of Geophysics in 2001, he was so kind as to help in revising the English grammar of the “Profile of the Institute”. He told us that in a tour place in Asia, there is a monument with English tribute. But because of the poor language, nobody fully understands what it is really for.

Not only one of his books was translated into Chinese. Remarkably, one of his works translated into Chinese was titled as “Nine Lectures on Earthquakes”. This is special in the Chinese-speaking world, because in the 1970s, a leading seismologist in China Prof. Fu Chengyi published his famous “Ten Lectures on the Earth”. Fu’s book received widespread attention in Earth sciences in China, marking the opening of Chinese seismology to outside world after the disastrous Culture Revolution. Such a Chinese translation of the title, “Nine Lectures on Earthquakes” reflects the welcome of Chinese colleagues to the book of Bruce as well as himself.

It is a pity that Prof. Bruce Bolt left us. But his words, his contribution, and his kind personality will remain to be remembered by Chinese colleagues, which bridges the people who are living and those who ever lived in the same world – To much extent this is just the so-called “culture” which has not yet, and probably will never have, a well accepted academic definition.

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Last modified: Monday February 06, 2006