Chief of Science and Technology
Met Office
Stephen Belcher is Chief Scientist at the UK Met Office with responsibility for leading the research, development and operations of the Met Office’s work on weather and climate. The Met Office team of more than 900 research scientists, engineers and technologists has earned a world-wide reputation for excellence in weather and climate science and the translation of this science into weather and climate services for daily weather forecasts, emergency response (for example to volcanic eruptions), and into climate change mitigation and adaptation. Stephen represents the Met Office on science and technology to UK Government as a member of the UK Government Chief Scientific Advisor network led by Government Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor Dame Angela McLean, ensuring that the Met Office programme fits properly into the wider UK and international environmental science landscape. He is a trustee of the Science Museum, chair of the World Meteorological Organisation’s Science Advisory Panel and a visiting professor at the Universities of Reading and Exeter. He was awarded a CBE in the 2026 New Years Honours for contributions to climate science.