EPEC Committee

EPEC Committee

The EPEC Committee is the management body of the Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Network. EPEC Committee will act as a strategic and operational body to advise, coordinate and champion Early Career activities across the Europlanet Society that further the Society’s commitment to building and sustaining Europe’s planetary science community. The EPEC Committee may, from time to time, commission and operate sub committees though these shall also be approved by Europlanet Board – for example, the local organising committee (LOC) for Annual Week. The EPEC Committee will appoint a Chair on a biennial basis. The EPEC Chair will organise regular conference calls to facilitate activities and progress across the whole Early Career Network.

Aims of EPEC Committee:

  • To support Early Career Researchers in the European planetary community
  • To promote, encourage and support the Constitution of the Europlanet Society and meet Europlanet’s commitment to diversity
  • To provide guidance and make recommendations to the Europlanet Executive Board on Early Career issues, including where action is needed
  • To organise and support EPEC meetings including the (nominally) annual Early Career Network meeting
  • To review, report on, share and exchange good practice within and outside the Society.
  • Assume responsibility for a specific event or activity whereby they commit to supporting volunteers to bring the project to fruition.

Current EPEC Chairs

Nimisha Verma (2024-present) and Thomas O’Sullivan (2025-present)

Past EPEC Chairs

We acknowledge and are grateful for the support of the early careers that dedicated their time to chairing the Europlanet Early Career Network:

Jessica Hogan (2023-2025)
Melissa Mirino (2023-2024)
Ines Belgacem (2021-2023)
Erica Luzzi (2021-2023)
Indhu Varatharajan (2017-2021)

If you would like to join the EPEC Committee, no prior experience is required, you can learn as you go, just as we did! All we ask is you take the leap, put your name forward, bring motivation and some ideas for the network. If this sounds like something you could do, do not hesitate to reach out at epec.network@gmail.com

Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149.
Europlanet AISBL (Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif – 0800.634.634) is hosted by the Department of Planetary Atmospheres of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Avenue Circulaire 3, B-1180 Brussels, Belgium.