Frank Press is an American geophysicist. An advisor to four U.S. Presidents, he later served two consecutive terms as President of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1981-1993). He is the author of 160 scientific papers and co-author of the textbooks Earth and Understanding Earth. He was born on December 4, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States. Press graduated with a B.S. degree from the City College of New York (1944) and completed his M.A. (1946) and Ph.D. (1949) degrees at Columbia University. Press' accomplishments in this period include the design of a long-period seismograph, and the first detection of the Earth's normal modes of oscillation ("bell ringing"), excited by the Great Chilean earthquake, a pioneering application of digital processing to seismic recordings. Press was also closely involved in the construction of a lunar seismograph, first deployed by the Apollo 11 astronauts. In 1994, he received the National Medal Of Science. Press served on Presidential scientific advisory committees during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations and was appointed by President Nixon to the National Science Board. In 1977 he was appointed President Jimmy Carter's science advisor and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, serving until 1981.