Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics

Harsh K. Gupta is currently a Member of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, India and President, Geological Society of India. He has been a Member of National Disaster Management Authority, India; Secretary to Govt. of India, Department of Ocean Development; Director of the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad; Vice Chancellor, Cochin University of Science and Technology and Professor, University of Texas at Dallas. He is globally known for his work on artificial water reservoir triggered earthquakes and developing criteria to discriminate them from normal earthquakes. As the Leader of the 3rd Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica during 1983-84, he succeeded in setting up of India’s first permanent base station ’Dakshin Gangotri’ at Antarctica in a record time of one Antarctic summer, which still is a record.

He chaired the Steering Committee of the Global Seismic Hazard Program. After the disastrous 2004 Sumatra earthquake, he spearheaded setting up of the Indian Tsunami Early Warning system. He has published over 200 papers in reviewed journals, authored 5 books published by Elsevier and Springer. He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize; Waldo E. Smith Medal of American Geophysical Union; USSR Academy of Sciences ’100 years of International Geophysics Memorial Medal’; Axford Gold Medal of Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS); National Mineral Award of Excellence; Padma Shri among many honors. He is a Fellow of Indian National Science Academy, The World Academy of Sciences and American Geophysical Union. He has been President of IUGG, AOGS and is the Founder President of Asian Seismological Commission.