Dear Colleagues and members of the BGA:

I am writing to you to let you know some significant developments for future
BGA sponsored meetings. Other aspects of BGA activities will be covered in
the AGM Minutes to be posted at the BGA website shortly. However, I wanted
to draw attention to some significant developments.

The biannual Geoscience meeting of the Geol. Soc. has folded, leaving the
BGA with no vehicle to present current research and major advances in
Geophysics in the UK. The UKGA had linked to Geoscience and so we are
suggesting a NEW FUTURE. The BGA committee have proposed the following
annual meeting programme and this was accepted at the AGM in Edinburgh
(28/6/01)

The BGA will organize a three tiered presentation of UK geophysics research
as follows:

1. Bullerwell Lecture to be given each year by an outstanding  young British
geophysicist. This will be a major lecture at the EGS meeting at Nice,
immediately after the RAS / BGA reception at the EGS. The BGA are most
appreciative of the funding for this reception which enables a short
presentation by the President of the BGA to European colleagues, about both
UK Geophysics and the RAS and GJI.
.
2.  A two day thematic meeting to be organised each year as the RAS February
"G" meeting.  The title of the meeting is not yet resolved but is expected
to be "Advances in Geophysics".  The first meeting would be in 2003 and
would probably be on the topic of "Satellite Geophysics". The February 2002
meeting at the RAS will be a joint RAS/BGA special meeting (details to
follow).

3. A one or two day post-graduate meeting to be held at one of the
universities represented by the BGA committee members, the local committee
member being the director of the meeting, the local postgraduates and
postdocs, being the organisers.  The BGA committee would attend and the
presentations would be seriously assessed with feedback being given to all
the students.  There would be prizes for academic innovation and the best
presentation.  The meeting will take place in September / October (exact
dates to be decided), the first such meeting taking place in 2002, almost
certainly in Southampton. We have Industry financial support for this.


The BGA will soon be the  trustees of the Gray-Milne fund which is worth
some £2.5k/year. This will be used to fund our new "Advances in Geophysics
Meeting" and our "Postgraduate Meeting".

This is a new future for us brought about by the collapse of the Geoscience
meeting.  Your committee and the membership at the AGM in Edinburgh were
extremely enthusiastic and felt that this may even be a better solution for
the replacement for UKGA. I hope you can support this.


Paul


Professor R. Paul Young
President of the British Geophysical Association
www.geophysics.org.uk

Chair of Earth Sciences
Department of Earth Sciences
University of Liverpool
www.liv.ac.uk/seismic