Dr. John N. Louie is a Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has over forty years of university teaching and research experience in geophysics and seismology. He has published with students several well-cited papers on innovations in seismic imaging of earthquake faults in California, Nevada, and New Zealand. Over the last 25 years, Dr. Louie has developed a faster and more efficient site-assessment survey technique for earthquake-hazard evaluation, Refraction Microtremor. Research on this technology continues, measuring thousands of sites in California, Nevada, and New Zealand; and on using geological and geotechnical measurements to develop geothermal energy resources, predict earthquake shaking from 3D wave physics, and improve communities' resilience to disasters. In 2023 John co-founded Terēan at https://terean.com to bring his developments more rapidly to the benefit of communities everywhere.
Savran, W. H., Louie, J. N., Flinchum, B., Pullammanappallil, S. K., & Pancha, A. (2012). Spatial statistics of the Clark County Parcel Map, trial geotechnical models, and effects on earthquake ground motions in Las Vegas Valley. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, (submitted). SCEC Contribution 1595
Savran, W. H., Louie, J. N., Flinchum, B., Pullammanappallil, S. K., & Pancha, A. (2012). Spatial statistics of the Clark County Parcel Map, trial geotechnical models, and effects on earthquake ground motions in Las Vegas Valley. Presentation at 2012 Symposium on Engineering Geology and Geotechnical Engineering. SCEC Contribution 1536
Savran, W. H., Flinchum, B., Plank, G., Dudley, C., Prina, N., & Louie, J. N. (2011). Comparing Physics-Based Next-Level ShakeZoning Computations with USGS ShakeMap Statistics for Southern Nevada Earthquake Scenarios. Oral Presentation at NWRA Symposium 2011. SCEC Contribution 1474
Abbott, R., Louie, J. N., Brune, J. N., & Anooshehpoor, A. (2001). Weak Ground Motion and Amplifications Predicted From Shear-Wave Velocities at Precarious Rocks, near the 1857 Rupture of the San Andreas Fault. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, (in preparation). SCEC Contribution 601
Newton, M. O., Louie, J. N., Stern, T., & Pancha, A. (2022, 09). Low Frequency Non-Ergodic Synthetic Modeling of Earthquake Basin Effects in Wellington, New Zealand. Poster Presentation at 2022 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 12218
Louie, J. N., Eckert, E., Lewright, L. M., Scalise, M., Prathap, A., & Smith, K. (2022, 09). Exploring Basin Amplification within the Reno Metropolitan Area in Northern Nevada Using 3D Scenarios. Poster Presentation at 2022 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 11968
Louie, J. N., Simpson, A. R., & Ortega, J. (2020, 08). Database of geotechnical shear-wave seismic-velocity profile measurements for California and Nevada. Poster Presentation at 2020 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 10493
Louie, J. N., Boudjema, M., Dunn, M., & Kent, G. M. (2017, 08). Ground-Motion Variance from Modeling of Multiple Rupture-Directivity Scenarios on the Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon Fault System. Poster Presentation at 2017 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 7537
Flinchum, B., Louie, J. N., Smith, K. D., Savran, W. H., Pullammanappallil, S. K., & Pancha, A. (2014). Validating Nevada ShakeZoning Predictions of Las Vegas Basin Response against 1992 Little Skull Mountain Earthquake Records. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 104(1). doi: 10.1785/0120130059. SCEC Contribution 1594
Flinchum, B. A., Savran, W. H., Smith, K. D., Louie, J. N., Pullammanappallil, S. K., & Pancha, A. (2012, 10). Validation of Las Vegas basin response to the 1992 Little Skull Mtn. earthquake as predicted by physics-based Nevada ShakeZoning computations. Presentation at 2012 EGGE Conference. SCEC Contribution 1537
Pei, D., Louie, J. N., & Pullammanappallil, S. K. (2007). Application of simulated annealing inversion on high-frequency fundamental-mode Rayleigh wave dispersion curves. Geophysics, 72(5), R77-R85. doi: 10.1190/1.2752529 . SCEC Contribution 1350
Louie, J. N. (2001). Faster, Better: Shear-Wave Velocity to 100 Meters Depth From Refraction Microtremor Arrays. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 91(2), 347-364. doi: 10.1785/0120000098. SCEC Contribution 515
