Susanne spent the first part of her career as a seismologist specialising in seismic hazard assessment. Her work now focusses on building bridges between science and decision making for disaster risk management and development. She has worked on various research and capacity building projects, mostly in south Asia, and has held two knowledge exchange fellowships. These focussed on increasing the use of earthquake science in operational decision in INGOs in Bangladesh and in the resilience building process more generally. She is a very experienced facilitator and enjoys being able to create spaces for diverse groups to come together to address complex issues.
Current projects and collaborations
- Characteristics of seismic sources and seismic wave propagation in the UK, ground motion prediction and modelling the effects of the near surface
- Earthquakes Without Frontiers: increasing resilience to earthquakes in Central Asia, China and Nepal (NERC/ESRC, 2012-2017). A wide collaboration between natural and social scientists and policy practitioners located in the UK (BGS, Cambridge (lead), Durham, Hull, Leeds, Northumbria and Oxford universities, and the Overseas Development Institute) and in each of these regions, as well as local policy makers and organisations, both government and non-governmental
- NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship: Understanding and increasing the use of scientific information in earthquake risk management in a humanitarian organisation (with Concern Worldwide and Concern Bangladesh)
- Seismic hazard assessment for national and international clients
- Supervising PhD students: Victoria Sword Daniels (University College London/GNS New Zealand/University of Canterbury) Evaluating the impact of volcanic ash fall on critical infrastructure; Kim Hagen (Open University/Leicester University) Community resilience to geological hazards in the Solomon Islands: harnessing local knowledge and shared experience
Published outputs
NERC Open Research Archive — Susanne Sargeant
Qualifications
- 1994 – BSc (Hons) Geophysical Sciences (University of East Anglia)
- 1998 – PhD Geophysics (University of East Anglia) – Modelling shallow earthquakes using teleseismic broadband data
- 2010 – NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship
Professional associations
2006 – ongoing: Fellow of the Geological Society
Boards and committees
2010 – ongoing: Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team management committee
2011 – ongoing: Geology for Global Development advisory group (www.gfgd.org)
2012 – European Seismological Commission Working Group on increasing the impact of scientific information