Savvas Marcou – 2025 Wonderfest Science Envoy

Savvas Marcou is a third-year PhD student at UC Berkeley. He was born in Cyprus, a small island in the Eastern Mediterranean. Earthquakes and the widely varied ways they have for generating ground shaking captivate his interest. His research at UC Berkeley currently focuses on how smartphone data from the MyShake app could potentially reveal spatial patterns in ground shaking in unprecedented detail. Additionally, he works on evaluating the performance of California’s earthquake early warning system and forecasting how well it could do in future large earthquakes. He also constantly thinks about how earthquake research could be best communicated to the public and policymakers. Outside of research, Savvas enjoys hiking in California’s great outdoors, traveling, casual cycling, cooking for friends, and discovering random trivia.