John Bacon
John spent 20 very happy years working as a Civil Engineer in many parts of the UK, but also with 10 years in Tanzania, Dubai and Oman before returning to study Geophysical Sciences at UEA as a mature student. He discovered the science of oceanography and in particular coastal processes and carried on to complete a PhD at UEA, working with an inspiring research group at UEA, guided by Chris Vincent in 2004.
After a UEA post doc job, a lecturer's post and a further three years working as a marine specialist with Meteorologists Weatherquest Ltd, he moved to Cefas eight years ago and is a Principal Scientist in Coastal numerical modelling and also leads High Performance and Scientific Computing at Cefas. Much of his work involves numerical modelling of coastal processes, geomorphology and water quality, particularly in respect of shellfish health. Cefas is a hugely diverse organisation and although a government department (executive agency of Defra) is one of the foremost organisations to work in marine science research.
He has been a member of the Challenger Society since 2002 and was elected as Honorary Secretary, despite attrocious spelling! He now runs the web development for the society and Mattias Green is the Honorary Secretary.
Latest News
Potential Availability of NERC Ship Time During the 25/26 Programme Year
The NERC Marine Facilities Programme for 2025/2026 for the RRS Discovery and the RRS James Cook has been published on the Marine Facilities Planning website.
The RRS Discovery programme currently contains a 79 day alongside slot between the 2nd of November 2025 and the 19th of January 2026, which is available for science delivery if funded science projects can make use of this time. Due to the location of the vessel, the ship is most likely to be able to deliver fieldwork in the North and East Atlantic regions. Some support for science capability within the National Marine Equipment Pool is potentially available, although there is no capacity for use of autonomous vehicles or remotely operated vehicles. Any fieldwork within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) will need the appropriate diplomatic clearance submitted to coastal states at least 6 months in advance, and to NMF with sufficient lead time for processing via the FCDO.
If interested in making use of this ship time, please contact NERC Marine Planning (marineplanning@nerc.ukri.org) ASAP to start discussions.
THE MARINE FACILITIES ADVISORY BOARD – CAN YOU HELP?
The Marine Facilities Advisory Board advises the National Oceanography Centre on marine facilities and services, including the Natural Environment Research Council’s National Marine Equipment Pool (NMEP), the British Oceanographic Data Centre and the British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility.
NOC Association AGM 2025
NOC Association (NOCA) AGM 2025
The 14th AGM of the NOC Association will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th May 2025. This free, on-line event will take place on Zoom, across two consecutive mornings, each starting at 10:00 and ending at 12:30. Although discussion topics are being finalised, we will focus on national capability (NC) science, ships, and autonomous vehicles, and how the community can engage. There will be an update on AtlantiS and on the new marine science scoping group. All are warmly welcome to join. To participate, please complete your registration here. For enquiries: Jackie Pearson, Secretary to NOCA: jfpea@noc.ac.uk