Introduction

Hello, welcome to my website!

My name is Clara Yoon, and I am an earthquake seismologist and software developer at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Pasadena, California.

I am a southern California native who has felt many earthquakes, including Northridge (1994, M_w 6.7), Hector Mine (1999, M_w 7.1), El-Mayor Cucapah (2010, M_w 7.2), and Ridgecrest (2019, M_w 6.4 and M_w 7.1). I hope to contribute my earthquake science expertise and technical knowledge to make my home region, and other earthquake-prone regions, safer from the destructive effects of earthquakes.

In my current job, I lead the IT and software operations on the USGS side of the Southern California Seismic Network (SCSN), which is a collaboration between USGS and the Caltech Seismo Lab to monitor earthquake activity in southern California. Responding to the magnitude 6.4 and 7.1 earthquakes near Ridgecrest, California, on July 4-5, 2019 has been a memorable experience in my career.

Previously, I completed my PhD degree in geophysics at Stanford University in 2018, specializing in observational earthquake seismology, with a thesis titled A FAST Data Mining Approach for Similar Earthquake Detection. I developed an unsupervised data mining algorithm to identify similar earthquake signals hidden in massive seismic data sets, applied it to understand the initiation process of both induced and natural earthquake sequences, and released open-source software for this algorithm. I was advised by Prof. Greg Beroza and worked closely with Prof. Bill Ellsworth on my thesis.

Before that, from 2006 to 2012, I developed algorithms and software for modeling and analysis of remote sensing data, including radar and optical imagery, at a small company called Arete Associates in the defense industry. I completed my BS degree in physics from UCLA in 2006.

I have worked on a diverse range of scientific and technical problems in industry, academia, and now government. I can communicate and collaborate with a wide variety of stakeholders, including software developers, scientists, system administrators, management, students, and the general public. I have a unique combination of skills in geophysics, seismology, radar science, and software development that enables me to successfully approach interdisciplinary scientific problems, extract useful insights from large data sets, and develop robust technical solutions.