Dr. Siddorn Tapped to Transform NOC Research Strategy

The National Oceanography Center (NOC) appointed Dr. John Siddorn as Chief Scientist and Director of Data, Science & Technology (DST), taking up the new position in July 2023.

Dr. Siddorn joined the NOC in 2020 as Associate Director of Digital Ocean. He has championed the embedding of digital approaches to furthering science, including through the use of digital twins. He succeeds Professor Angela Hatton who is leaving the NOC after over six years in the role.

Prior to NOC, Dr. Siddorn was at the Met Office where he was Head of the Ocean Forecasting R&D Department (OFRD) group and co-chair of the National Partnership for Ocean Prediction (NPOP). As Head of OFRD he had responsibility for developing models and satellite analyses for weather and climate applications. His personal research was on developing ocean models with a focus on interactions between the ocean and atmosphere, and understanding how those interactions underpin predictability for climate and for high impact events. Amongst other responsibilities, he led the Newton Program’s India project which developed the science and modelling capability across climate and weather timescales, coordinating work in the Met Office and in UK academia with that at the Ministry of Earth Science in India.