Joan Latchman

Latchman was born in Trinidad and Tobago around 1940. In 1972, shortly after completing her A-Levels, Latchman joined the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre as a technician.^[1] In 1977 she started a part-time undergraduate degree in natural sciences.^[2] She worked on the La Soufrière volcanic eruption with Keith Rowley in 1979 and worked at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.^[3] In 1982, after an earthquake swarm that occurred in the vicinity of Tobago, Latchman became interested in seismicity.^[4][5] She worked with Frank Dale Morgan, a visiting academic from Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was working at the Seismic Research Centre.^[1] Her early work considered the development of simple microprocessors that could convert the acoustic recordings of seismic events into digital signals that can be analysed on a computer.^[6]

Latchman was selected to take part in the International Seismological Centre in 1988 and spent two years analysing global seismicity.^[7] She started a master's research project into the fault system of Tobago, and earned her degree in 1998. She joined the academic staff at the UWI in 1999 whilst working toward a doctorate in the Tobago and Earthquakes. She was eventually promoted to Director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre.^[8]

She was responsible for the collection of seismic data from fifty stations throughout the Eastern Caribbean.^[9] She has made efforts to communicate and better prepare people for seismic hazards in the West Indies.^[10] Latchman called for local governments to include earthquake preparation in their policy work, including considering their infrastructure, medical equipment preparation and enforcement of building codes.^[10][11]

Latchman retired from the UWI Seismic Research Centre in 2019.^[3] She was visited by Keith Rowley, her former colleague and now Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.^[3] In 2019 Latchman was awarded the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency Council Award.^[2]

Alongside her research, Latchman is committed to public engagement and outreach. She has been involved in a photographic exhibition that explored the volcanic activity of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.^[12] She routinely provided information about seismic activity to local and national newspapers.^{[13][14][15][16]}

Her publications include;

• Latchman, Joan L. (1998-09-15). "Seismicity associated with dome growth and collapse at the Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat". Geophysical Research Letters. 25 (18): 3401–3404. Bibcode:1998GeoRL..25.3401M. doi:10.1029/98GL01778. S2CID 140567183.
• Latchman, Joan L. (1998-09-15). "Soufrière Hills Eruption, Montserrat, 1995–1997: Volcanic earthquake locations and fault plane solutions". Geophysical Research Letters. 25 (18): 3397–3400. Bibcode:1998GeoRL..25.3397A. doi:10.1029/98GL00858. S2CID 129796392.
• Latchman, Joan L. (2008). "Temporal changes in the cumulative piecewise gradient of a variant of the Gutenberg–Richter relationship, and the imminence of extreme events". Earth-Science Reviews. 87 (3–4): 94–112. Bibcode:2008ESRv...87...94L. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2007.11.001.