CVO has a new Scientist-in-Charge, Dr. Seth Moran.

As of August 9, 2015, Dr. Seth Moran takes over the leadership of USGS-Cascades Volcano Observatory from John Ewert, who served as the scientist-in-charge for the past five years.

Seth Moran began his USGS career as a research seismologist for the Alaska Volcano Observatory in 1997. In 2003, Moran joined the staff of CVO as the principal USGS seismologist responsible for studying and monitoring Cascade volcanoes. Seth's timing was fortuitous - in the fall of 2004 Mount St. Helens reawakened after 18 years of quiet. As is typical in all eruption responses, Seth assumed many different roles during the response: conducting his own seismic analyses, coordinating research by others outside CVO, being interviewed by the news media, assembling statements for the news media and working with partner agencies in emergency response.

In addition to Mount St. Helens, a significant percentage of Seth's time has been spent maintaining and improving seismic monitoring capabilities at other Cascade volcanoes, such as installing new seismic stations at Mount Rainier National Park, and developing a new network of eight seismic stations at Newberry Volcano in 2011. Seth has also been active in the larger scientific community being a critical player in the Imaging Magma Under St. Helens experiment, known as iMUSH, jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and USGS to produce a better "picture" of the magma "plumbing system" under the volcano.