Lisa Grant Ludwig

Picture of Lisa Grant Ludwig
Professor, Population Health and Disease Prevention
Public Health
Ph.D., Caltech, Geology with Geophysics minor
M.S., Caltech, Geology
M.S., Caltech, Environmental Engineering and Science
B.S., Stanford, Applied Environmental Earth Sciences
Phone: (949) 824-2889
Email: lgrant@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
Wen Public Health
856 Health Sciences Rd, #3511
Mail Code: 3957
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
earthquakes, San Andreas fault, disaster resilience, public health, paleoseismology, earthquake policy
Academic Distinctions
She was elected President of the Seismological Society of America and received a Medal from NASA for her contributions to NASA’s 2012 Software of the Year. Her research on the San Andreas fault was featured on the Cover of Science, and she gave Congressional Testimony about earthquake hazard and risk mitigation. She recently served 2 terms on the Federal Advisory Committee for Earthquake Hazard Reduction and she was a member of 2 National Academy Committees.
Research Abstract
Some of Dr. Ludwig’s research interests include earthquakes and related geohazards, the San Andreas fault, disaster resilience, public health and earthquake policy.
Awards and Honors
UC Irvine 2022 Inclusive Excellence in Teaching Award
UC Irvine Academic Senate Distinguished Mid-Career Award for Service, 2019-20
NASA Software of the Year 2012, Medal
Short Biography
Dr. Lisa Grant Ludwig is a nationally recognized expert on earthquakes with a focus on translating research into policy for risk reduction. She was founding Director of Graduate Programs in Public Health (MPH, PhD), 2009-14, 2015-16, and she served as Chair of the Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention 2019-2024.
Publications
Fukurai, M. and Grant Ludwig, L. Risk Perception to Preparedness: 2011 Pre- and Post-Great Tohoku Japan Earthquake. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 116 (2025) 105074. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.105074.
Jafari, A., Fox A., Rundle, J.B., Donnellan, A, Ludwig, L.G., Time Series Foundation Models and Deep Learning Architectures for Earthquake Temporal and Spatial Nowcasting, GeoHazards, 2024, 5 (4), 1247-1274. https://doi.org/10.3390/geohazards5040059
Rundle, J. B., Donnellan, A., Fox, G., Ludwig, L. G., & Crutchfield, J. (2023). Does the catalog of California earthquakes, with aftershocks included, contain information about future large earthquakes? Earth and Space Science, 10(2), e2022EA002521. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022EA002521
Akciz, S., Grant Ludwig, L., Arrowsmith, R. J., Capaldi, T. N. and E. J. Rhodes (2023). Channel Incision Ages to the Rescue: An Improved Age for the Penultimate Earthquake That Ruptured the Carrizo Section of the South-Central San Andreas Fault, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 113 (2), 877-887, https://doi.org/10.1785/0120220189
Halkia, G. and Grant Ludwig, L. Household Earthquake Preparedness in Oklahoma: A Mixed Methods Study of Selected Municipalities, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.73 (2022) 102872, Mar 5, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102872
Rood, Anna H., Dylan H. Rood, Greg Balco, Peter J. Stafford, Lisa Grant Ludwig, Katherine J. Kendrick, Klaus M. Wilcken (2022). Validation of earthquake ground-motion models in southern California, USA, using precariously balanced rocks, GSA Bulletin (2023) 135 (9-10): 2179-2199, https://doi.org/10.1130/B36484.1
Rundle, J. B., *Yazbeck, J., Donnellan, A., Fox, G., Ludwig, L. G., Heflin, M., & Crutchfield, J. (2022). Optimizing earthquake nowcasting with machine learning: The role of strain hardening in the earthquake cycle. Earth and Space Science, 9(11), e2022EA002343. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022EA002343
Golding, M., Gould Runnerstrom, M., & Grant Ludwig, L. Negative Roommate Relationships and the Health and Wellbeing of Undergraduate College Students. Journal of Public Health Student Capstones, 1 (1) May 9, 2022.
Granat, R., Donnellan, A., Heflin, M., Lyzenga, G., Glasscoe, M., Parker, J., Pierce, M., Wang, J., Rundle, J. and L. G. Ludwig (2021). Clustering analysis methods for GNSS Observations: A Data-Driven Approach to Identifying California’s Major Faults. Special Section on Machine learning for Solid Earth observation, modeling and understanding. Earth and Space Science, 8, e2021EA001680. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EA001680
Parker, J., Bilham, R., Donnellan, A., Grant Ludwig, L., Wang, J., Pierce, M., *Mowery, N. and S. Janecke (2021). Buried Aseismic Slip and Off-Fault Deformation on the Southernmost San Andreas Fault triggered by the 2010 El Mayor Cucapah Earthquake revealed by UAVSAR. Earth and Space Science. Special Section on Results from 10 Years of UAVSAR Observations. e2021EA001682. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EA001682
Donnellan, A., Parker, J., Heflin, M., Glasscoe, M., Lyzenga, G., Pierce, M., Wang, J., Rundle, J., Grant Ludwig, L., Granat, R., *Mirkhanian, M., and N. *Pulver (2021). Improving Access to Geodetic Imaging Crustal Deformation Data using GeoGateway. Earth Science Informatics: Special Issue on Technical Innovations to Increase Scientific Access to Earth Observation Data. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-020-00561-7
Stirling, M. W., M. E. Oskin, J. R. Arrowsmith, A. H. *Rood, C. A. Goulet, L. Grant Ludwig, T. R. King, A. Kottke, J. C. Lozos, C. M. Madugo, D. McPhillips, D. H. Rood, N. H. Sleep and C. E. Wittich (2021). Evaluation of Seismic Hazard Models with Fragile Geologic Features, Seismological Research Letters 92(1), 314-324. https://doi.org/10.1785/0220200197
Heflin, M., Donnellan, A., Parker, J., Lyzenga, G., Moore, A., Grant Ludwig, L., Rundle, J., Wang, J. and M. Pierce (2020). Automated estimation and tools to extract positions, velocities, breaks, and seasonal terms from daily GNSS measurements: Illuminating nonlinear Salton Trough deformation, Earth and Space Science, 7 (7). https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EA000644 ,Wiley Top Cited Article 2020-2021
Grant Ludwig, L., Akciz, S. O., Arrowsmith, J R., and Salisbury, J. B. (2019). Reproducibility of San Andreas fault slip rate measurements at Wallace Creek in the Carrizo Plain, CA. Earth and Space Sciences, 6, https://doi.org/10.1029/2017EA000360.
Content sharing link https://rdcu.be/bjfvr
Donnellan, A., Parker, J., Heflin, M., Lyzenga, G., Grant Ludwig, L., Rundle J., Wang, J., and M. Pierce. Fracture Advancing Step Tectonics Observed in the Yuha Desert and Ocotillo, CA Following the 2010 Mw7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah Earthquake. Earth and Space Sciences, Article online 14 Aug, 2018.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2017EA000351
Committee on Strengthening the Disaster Resilience of Academic Research Communities (Benjamin, G. C., Benitez, J. G., Cannons, A. C., Deininger, P., Goodwin Jr., B. S., Isakov, A., Grant Ludwig, L., Pawlowski, K., Poland, C. D., Rambo, N., Rock, J. A., Taylor Jr., L., and Vogelweid, C.) National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2017). Strengthening the disaster resilience of the academic biomedical research community: Protecting the nation’s investment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.17226/24827.
Esmaili, O., Grant Ludwig, L., Zareian, F., An Applied Method for General Regional Seismic Loss Assessment – with a case study in Los Angeles County, Journal of Earthquake Engineering, Published online 27 April 2017. Doi: 10.1080/13632469.2017.1284699
Link to article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13632469.2017.1284699
Baker, N. D. and Grant Ludwig, L., Disaster management as social control, Critical Policy Studies, 12:1, 24-43, Published online 14 Oct 2016, DOI: 10.1080/19460171.2016.1214075
Link to article: https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2016.1214075
Rundle, J. B., Turcotte, D. L., Donnellan, A., Grant Ludwig, L., Luginbuhl*, M., and Gong, G., Nowcasting Earthquakes, Earth and Space Sciences, 3, doi: 10.1002/2016EA000185 Published online 28 Nov 2016. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/2016EA000185
Donnellan, A., Grant Ludwig, L., Parker J., Rundle, J. B., Wang, J., Pierce, M., Blewitt, G. and S. Hensley (2015). Potential for a large earthquake near Los Angeles inferred from the 2014 La Habra earthquake. Earth and Space Sciences, 2, 378-385. doi:10.1002/2015EA000113.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2015EA000113
Grant Ludwig, L., Brune, J. N., Anooshehpoor, A., Purvance, M. D., Brune, R. J. and Lozos, J, Reconciling precariously balanced rocks with large earthquakes on the San Andreas fault system, Seismological Research Letters, Vol 86, no. 5, Sep/Oct 2015, p1345-1353. doi: 10.1785/0220140239
Noriega, G. R. and Grant Ludwig, L., Social vulnerability assessment for mitigation of local earthquake risk in Los Angeles County, Natural Hazards, doi: 10.1007/s11069-012-0301-7, vol. 64, no. 2, pp 1341-1355, Nov. 2012
Grant Ludwig, L. (2015). “Paleoseismology”, in Treatise on Geophysics, 2nd edition, edited by Gerald Schubert, Volume 4: Earthquake Seismology, edited by Hiroo Kanamori, Elsevier, Oxford, 2015, pages 559-579, ISBN 9780444538031, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-53802-4.00088-9.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780444538024000889)
S. O. Akciz, L. Grant Ludwig, J R. Arrowsmith and O. Zielke*. Century-long average time intervals between earthquake ruptures of the San Andreas Fault in the Carrizo Plain, California.Geology, September 2010, v. 38, no. 9; p. 787-790; doi: 10.1130/G30995.1; Data Repository item 2010222.
L. Grant Ludwig, S. O. Akciz, G. R. Noriega*, O. Zielke* and J R. Arrowsmith (2010). Climate-modulated channel incision and rupture history of the San Andreas fault in the Carrizo Plain. Published 21 January 2010 on Science Express, DOI: 10.1126/science.1182837; print version featured on cover; v. 327, 26 February 2010, 1117-1119.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/science.1182837?ijkey=ONpEkmb4c4hwI&keytype=ref&siteid=sci
O. Zielke*, J R. Arrowsmith, L. Grant Ludwig, and S. O. Akciz (2010). Slip in the 1857 and earlier large earthquakes along the Carrizo Plain, San Andreas fault, Published 21 January 2010 on Science Express, DOI: 10.1126/science.1182781; print version featured on cover; v. 327, 26 February 2010, 1119-1122.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/327/5969/1119
Grant, L. B., K. J. Mueller, E. M. Gath*, H. Cheng, R. L. Edwards, R. Munro and G. L. Kennedy, Late Quaternary Uplift and Earthquake Potential of the San Joaquin Hills, southern Los Angeles Basin, California, Geology, v. 27, no. 11, p. 1031-1034, 1999
Grant, L. B., Uncharacteristic Earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault, Science, v. 272, p.826 - 827, 1996.
Professional Societies
Seismological Society of America
AAAS
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
American Public Health Association (APHA)
Other Experience
Member, Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazard Reduction (ACEHR)
Federal Advisory Committee reporting to Director of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 2014—2020
Member, Committee on Strengthening the Disaster Resilience of Academic Research Communities
National Academy of Medicine, Health and Medicine Division, Board on Health Sciences Policy 2016—2017
Member, Committee on Seismology and Geodynamics
Standing Committee of the National Academies Board on Earth Sciences and Resources 2015—2018
Member, Academic Senate Council on Academic Personnel
University of California Irvine 2015—2018
President (President-Elect, Past President)
Seismological Society of America 2013—2016
Founding Director of Public Health Graduate Programs (MPH, Ph.D.)
Program in Public Health 2010—2016
Vice-Chair, Board of Directors
Southern California Earthquake Center 2007—2011
Member, Board on International Scientific Organizations
National Academies Policy and Global Affairs Division 2012—2015
Member, U.S. National Committee to the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG)
National Academy of Sciences 2003—2011
Member, Executive Committee
California Institute for Hazards Research, University of California MRP 2006—2011
Chair, Government Relations Committee, Seismological Society of America
2015—2025
Last updated
01/23/2025