Senior Research Associate in Applied Seismology

The role

Applications are invited for an 18-month Senior Research Associate position in Microseismic Monitoring of Subsurface Industrial Activities. The successful applicant will join the University of Bristol’s Geophysics group in the School of Earth Sciences (ranked 2nd in the UK’s most recent Research Excellence Framework, REF2021).

The role will involve close collaboration with researchers at the University of Oxford, the British Geological Survey, and with various external partners, including government bodies and industry as part of the DarkSeis (https://geophysics.gly.bris.ac.uk/DarkSeis/index.html) and BOPS (https://www1.gly.bris.ac.uk/BOPS/) research projects. 

The post-holder will conduct research to advance the use of high-density “nodal” arrays and/or Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) to: (i) detect and characterise induced (micro)seismic events at industrial sites, and (ii) detect and characterise geophysical perturbations (e.g., changes in seismic velocity, anisotropy or attenuation) caused by subsurface industrial activities.  

What will you be doing?

You will work with microseismic datasets acquired across a range of industrial sites. Where possible, you will also participate in field campaigns to acquire new datasets using nodal sensors and/or DAS. You will develop novel processing methods that leverage the particular advantages of DAS and nodal deployments (such has high fold and dense spatial sampling) in order to detect microseismic events, characterise their sources, and image geophysical perturbations caused by industrial activities. The development of machine learning methods to efficiently process large data volumes is expected to form a key component of the research program.

The DarkSeis and BOPS projects are collaborations between researchers at the Universities of Bristol and Oxford, the British Geological Survey, and various external partners. In addition to their primary research responsibilities, the post-holder will also play a key role in facilitating communications between the various organisations that are involved in the project.

There are no formally specified teaching duties required of the role-holder. However, other commitments permitting, the role-holder may be given development opportunities to undertake activities such as teaching on Masters and Doctoral programmes and/ or supervising MSc dissertations within the School of Earth Sciences, as appropriate.

You should apply if

We welcome applications from a broad range of quantitative backgrounds, including geophysics, applied and computational statistics, data science, civil engineering, maths or physics. Some prior experience working with geophysical datasets is required. Prior experience in the use of DAS data and/or machine learning is welcome but not required, as is some experience acquiring geophysical data in the field. The applicant will have strong research skills including scientific programming and creating research outputs. We seek excellent verbal and written communicators with strong team-working skills, who also aim to contribute positively to the wider community and research culture.

Additional information

Contract type: Open ended with fixed funding until 31/12/2027

The interviews are anticipated to take place mid-February 2026

For informal queries, please contact: James Verdon, james.verdon@bristol.ac.uk

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