Bailey Willis - Career

Career

After receiving degrees in mining engineering and civil engineering, Willis worked from 1881 to 1884 as a survey geologist for Northern Pacific Railroad. From 1884 to 1915, he worked for the USGS, being named director of the Appalachian division in 1889. In 1893 he published "The Mechanics of Appalachian Structure" in the Report of the United States Geological Survey. From 1895 to 1902 he lectured on geology at Johns Hopkins University. In 1900 he was appointed as head of the Division of Areal Geology of the USGS. In 1903 he accepted the invitation of the newly established Carnegie Institution of Washington to lead an expedition to northern China, an experience which was later described in his book Friendly China. From 1910 until 1914 he consulted for the government of Argentina an experience later recorded in his book a Yanqui in Patagonia. He led a vigorous public campaign in the 1920s to raise awareness of earthquake hazards and safe building practices. After finishing his work with the USGS, he was appointed as a professor and chairman of the geology department at Stanford University, where he served until 1922. In 1920, he was elected to the National Academy of the Sciences. He was president of the Seismological Society of America from 1921 to 1926, during which time he published his Geologic Structures. In 1932, he published "Isthmian Links" in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America.