All shook up

As Tom Sokolowski sat at his desk at the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center Thursday morning, he spoke passionately about upcoming research projects, new programs for communities and exciting new advances in computers that are making predicting tsunamis faster and more reliable, and in effect, saving lives.

Sokolowski was as passionate for his work as he has ever been. Only the new vest gave him away -- it was a gift from his coworkers, and it had the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center logo on the chest. Right under the logo, in all capital letters, the story was told -- RETIRED.

"I'm going to miss the projects, definitely, but I'm going to miss the people the most," Sokolowski said. "The people have made it worth it."

Thursday marked the last day on the job for Sokolowski, who has been the geophysicist at the WCATWC in Palmer for the last 21 years. It also marked a sad day for Alaskan scientists, because a leading expert in an important field called it quits after a long and illustrious career.

Throughout his career, Sokolowski has received top honors -- silver and gold medals from the Department of Commerce are among the most respected awards one can receive -- but even on his last day, he refused to take the credit. The people around him, he said, have made the difference in his career.

Whether it be a fellow geophysicist or a maintenance man working on the building, Sokolowski is proud of the team assembled around him, the people who made the research a reality.

"Nobody does anything by themselves. It's always a team effort," Sokolowski said. "The families, the support people, management. The only reason we have been so successful is because we believe in what we are doing, our families believe in what we are doing and management believes in what we are doing."

Now that he is retired, Sokolowski and his wife are becoming snowbirds. From May through September, the couple plans to live in Soldotna, in their recently-completed vacation home. During the winter, they will live in Maui, Hawaii, where Sokolowski spent 16 years working before his 21-year career in Palmer.

"I'm an Alaskan through and through, and this is where we want to spend most of our time," he said. "I love it here. The fishing, the camping, the walks, the hikes, the outdoors. I love everything about Alaska, until September," he added with a chuckle.

Sokolowski began his career working in Washington D.C. with what is now known as the National Earthquake Information Center. From there, he and his wife moved to Hawaii, where he spent time at the Joint Tsunami Research Effort at the University of Hawaii and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

"I was writing papers about how to better automate the system," Sokolowski said. "It's one thing to write a paper about something, but it is another thing to actually implement those ideas and put it into motion."

But that's exactly what he did. It was there he started automating the Tsunami Warning Center, an effort he continues today and for something he is considered the leading international expert.

"I think the most important thing we've done is standardize and automate the warning center, because with more standardized communication, lives can be saved," Sokolowski said. "We are still trying to standardize globally. We've had the Russians in here during the Cold War, the Japanese in here a couple of times. We gave them the software and told them about our techniques. A tsunami doesn't care if you are Russian, Japanese or American. But by working together, we can save the lives of all those people in the case of a tsunami."

After fully automating the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, Sokolowski was offered a position at the Palmer-based West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center by Stuart Bigler. It was a move Sokolowski has never questioned, and a move the rest of the world is better for, because of the advances made in earthquake and tsunami research under Sokolowski's direction.

"Stuart believed in what I was doing and funded it, and he should get a lot of the credit for what we've done here," Sokolowski said.

Through advances in computers and other technologies, Sokolowski has built the WCATW into the leading warning center in the Pacific. There are 13 Pacific warning centers, but the one based in Palmer is head and shoulders above the rest of them. Many use the model Sokolowski has established to pattern their warning centers after.

"We've progressed so much through technology," Sokolowski said. "We're forecasting wave heights and having earthquakes located in seconds now."

During the early stages of his career, Sokolowski had a vision for his field. As older researchers and geophysicists retired, he replaced them with people more oriented with computers and the evolving technological aspects of the profession.

"I'd hire a systems person and an applications person to replace people who retired, because that's the direction we were going," Sokolowski said. "I had to get people who were computer people because they changed the way we did things. They are still changing the way we do things now."

Sokolowski chuckles when the talks about the introduction of computers in the seismic and geophysic science realm.

"I remember when the government used to rent time on these mini-computers because it was so expensive to buy one," he said. "Now, look at it. Microcomputers run this place."

Throughout his 44-year career, Sokolowski has always worked to advance his field and find new ways to save lives through early warnings, but he has also done it with an eye to the budget, which like everybody's budget, is constantly shrinking in the face of government cuts.

He knows the government's money does run out, and he has always been looking for cheaper ways to do better things -- even on the day of his retirement, he was on the phone discussing a new program that will save thousands of dollars a month and still be better than the current system.

Even through his last day, Sokolowski was still working on the Tsunami Ready Program, which Seward became the first Alaska town to become a part of last January. He hopes other coastal communities follow suit.

"We've been lucky for the last 10 or 15 years because we haven't had to face an earthquake or tsunami disaster," he said. "But you can't prevent them. It will happen."

He has always thought of the average Joe on the street, and how tsunami research and earthquake sciences affect everyone, whether they know it or not.

"The guy down at Carrs has paid my salary all these years, and I feel I have to justify that," Sokolowski said. "I have to give them something that can help them, and I think we've done it. Any warning center must do three things -- you have to get the data, analyze that data and then disseminate it to the public to help them. Knowledge is the key to lessening fears in a time of emergency."

In a letter to his colleagues, Sokolowski said that while he won't be working at the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, he'll always stay busy.

"People like myself never really retire -- we just go onto other adventures, knowing that they will be as exciting and fulfilling as all the past ones have been," he wrote.