Domenico Giardini received his Ph.D.@the University of Bologna in 1987. Since 1997 he has been a professor of seismology and geodynamics@the Institute of Geophysics@the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and the director of the Swiss Seismological Service. Between 1992 and 1999, he served as director of the Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program for the UN's International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction.