DrSarah Cotterill

Dr Sarah Cotterill is an Assistant Professor in UCD's School of Civil Engineering since 2019. She teaches Stage One students through to Masters level with a focus on environmental engineering, sustainable water management and creative design solutions. She has over twelve years’ experience working on water systems in the UK, USA and Ireland on topics including sustainable water management, rainwater runoff, wastewater treatment, water efficiency and resilience. . Her research is funded through Science Foundation Ireland (NexSys), Creative Ireland's Climate Action Fund, the Chinese Scholarship Council and several SME-led projects. Through this she supports a research team with six PhD students, and two, soon-to-be-joining, postdoctoral researchers. Sarah completed an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) - scaling up microbial electrolysis cells for wastewater treatment and energy recovery - at Newcastle University in 2016 as part of the STREAM industrial doctoral centre (www.stream-idc.net). Following this, she worked for a start-up business (a spin-out from STREAM) focused on internet of things (IoT)-enabled rainwater management systems. In 2017, Sarah received a Fulbright "All Disciplines" Scholar award to carry out research exploring membrane technologies for wastewater treatment at The Pennsylvania State University. She began a postdoctoral position at Durham University in 2018, working in a knowledge transfer role for ERDF-funded project, 'The Water Hub'. This collaborative grant sought to drive innovation and practical application in the water sector, bringing together public, private and third sector businesses with academics and practitioners.She has received various awards, from Future Water Association's 'Emerging Talent' Award (sponsored by ARUP) in 2018, to a 2022 NovaUCD Innovation Award for consultancy completed for An Fóram Uisce/The Water Forum. This work also featured in an episode of RTÉ’s Eco Eye and in the Irish Farmers Journal. In 2023, she applied to the New European Bauhaus prizes on behalf of a collaborative team, winning the champions prize in the "connecting to nature" category for the 'Ripple' project in Co. Mayo. This was the first time there had been an Irish winner of a NEB prize from the European Commission.