[soliloquy id=”37″]

Who We Are

Milton Garces
Director (milton at isla.hawaii.edu)

Brian Williams
Field Systems Engineer & Analyst (bwilliams at isla.hawaii.edu)

Eric Pilger
Systems Administrator (pilger at higp.hawaii.edu)

Our History

Dr. Garces started working on infrasound in 1992 after a visit to Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica, during typically cloudy and foggy weather. The summit was not visible for a week, and the only perceptible signs of volcanic activity were from the rumbling symphony originating from the general direction of the crater and the ocassional glowing boulder rolling down the slope. The sounds produced during the frequent eruptions and explosions of Arenal not only provided an unambiguous danger-keep away signal, but also were suggestive of changes in the eruption processes. After graduating in 1995 from UCSD/Scripps, Dr. Garces pursued volcano infrasound studies under the sponsorship of the Alaska Volcano Observatory, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and the Aso Volcanological Laboratory, University of Kyoto, Japan. At these excellent institutions, Dr. Garces understood the importance of combining research and development with a socially relevant operational mission. After arriving in Hawaii in 1997, Dr. Garces began his involvement in nuclear monitoring. On December of 1999, work started on the construction of IS59, Hawaii, and the Infrasound Laboratory was founded to provide and develop technical expertise in the field of low-frequency acoustics.