Born near Hamilton, Ohio, Charles Richter was one of the pioneers of seismology, the study of the origin and intensity of earthquakes. Many people are familiar with his name in association with the Richter scale, an earthquake measurement regularly used in the reporting of earthquakes by newspapers, radio, and television. The Richter scale assigns numerical ratings to the energy released by an earthquake. The scale is based on the logarithm of the maximum amplitude of the earthquake waves observed on a seismograph---adjusted for the distance from the epicenter of the earthquake. On the Richter scale, an earthquake with a magnitude greater than 5.5 can cause significant damage. In 1928,… Richter received a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology and went on to work as a seismologist with the Seismological Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute in Pasadena, California. While there, he collaborated with Beno Gutenburg to develop the scale that bears his name, which was introduced in 1935. Richter never referred to the instrument as the Richter scale. He thought it was unfair to Beno Gutenburg, his friend and colleague. Richter always called it "the magnitude scale" or just "the scale." In 1937, Richter was appointed professor of seismology at the California Institute of Technology, where he taught and conducted research for almost 50 years. In the early 1960s, he advised the city of Los Angeles to remove cornices, parapets, and ornaments from buildings to minimize earthquake damage. In 1971, he was selected to serve as a member of the Los Angeles Earthquake Commission. Richter was widely honored for his seismological research. In 1959, he was awarded a Fulbright Research Scholarship at Tokyo University and was a fellow of several professional organizations, including the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the Royal Society of New Zealand.