Our Organisation

The UK Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET) is a large national-scale, high-impact community, which brings together world-leading scientists across the British Geological Survey (BGS) and 16 UK universities.

The COMET Directorate (COMET Co-Directors, management and support staff) are spread across the University of Leeds and University of Bristol, and COMET Scientists and science staff are based at the following partner institutions:

Bristol
Cambridge
Edinburgh
Leeds
Manchester
Oxford
Sheffield

While many COMET Associates, Postdoctoral and Postgraduate Researchers are based at the partner institutions listed above, we also have associates, researchers and students at:

Cardiff
East Anglia
Exeter
Imperial College London
Newcastle
Nottingham
Plymouth
Southampton
UCL

As well as COMET Industrial Associates based at:

Met Office
UKCEH
Viridien
WTW

To find out more about Our People and the different types of COMET membership…

COMET Directorate

Governance Structure

COMET Executive Committee:

The COMET Executive Committee is the decision-making body for COMET, overseeing the management and delivery of the COMET science programme and developing proposals for future National Capability (NC) Science.

COMET Co-Director: Professor Juliet Biggs (Bristol)
COMET Co-Director: Professor Tim Wright (Leeds)
COMET Manager: Charlotte Royle (Leeds)
COMET Deputy Director (Earthquakes and Tectonics): Professor Alex Copley (Cambridge)
COMET Deputy Director (Volcanoes): Dr Susanna Ebmeier (Leeds)
COMET Deputy Director (Earth Observation): Professor Don Grainger (Oxford)
COMET Research and Events Officer: Lucy Sharpson (Leeds)

COMET Advisory Board:

The COMET Advisory Board will meet once per year (at the COMET Annual Meeting) to provide strategic advice and feedback to the COMET Executive Committee, British Geological Survey (BGS), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Dr Philippa Mason (Imperial College London, Chair)
Dr Elisa Carboni (STFC RAL, NCEO Representative)
Dr Nicola D’Agostino (INGV, Roma, Italy)
Professor Romain Jolivet (École Normale Supérieure, Paris)
Prof. Dr. Eleonora Rivalta (GFZ, Potsdam)

COMET Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Group:

COMET is committed to delivering practical changes that help increase equity, diversity, and inclusion within our community. Building on existing suggestions for change from COMET members, the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action Group will develop and oversee the EDI Action Plan and work alongside the COMET Directorate to ensure relevant actions are taken.