Juan M. Lorenzo obtained his Licenciatura in Geology from the Universitat de Barcelona and a Ph.D. in Marine Seismology from Columbia University. He has been in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University since 1993, holds the Ernest & Alice Neal Professorship in Geology & Geophysics, and is an Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Petroleum Engineering. His current research focuses on the near-surface geophysics of levees and dams and the near-surface seismology for the characterization of soils on Mars and the Moon.