Sarah is a Professor in Materials Engineering and Head of department in Mechanical and Construction Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Environment. She has research interests in the sustainable use of materials and materials failure. She has an undergraduate degree in ceramics and glasses from the University of Sheffield, a PhD in materials engineering from the University of Nottingham, and a postgraduate teaching qualification from Durham University. She did her post-doctoral research at the University of Nottingham and was a visiting researcher at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. In 1998 she moved to Durham University to a lectureship in the School of Engineering and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2005. In 2008 she joined the University of Cumbria’s Energy Coast campus project to lead work on the development of new engineering degree programmes to support the West Cumbria nuclear and renewables supply chain. In 2010 she joined the department of Engineering at the University of Lancaster where she held leadership roles, including deputy Head of Department, Director of Teaching, and Faculty EDI representative. She was promoted to Personal Chair in 2018 and in 2022 was appointed inaugural Head of the School of Engineering.

Sarah was elected to Fellowship of IOM3 and the Women’s Engineering Society and she holds CEng and CEnv. She is a member of the IOM3 Academic and Professional Formation Committee and is an accreditor for IOM3 CEng degree programmes and Level 3 apprenticeships. She has been external examiner for undergraduate programmes at Queen Mary University of London, the University of Huddersfield and the Dyson Institute of Engineering & Technology. She is a college member of EPSRC and a review panel member for the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Carnegie Trust. Sarah is a visiting researcher at the University of Lancaster.

Sarah has supervised over 60 Masters and PhD projects and has received funding from UKRI, EPSRC, ERDF, Innovate, TSB, Ceres Power, Royal Society, Sir John Fisher Foundation, Fletchers Group, Gilkes & Gordon, Cumbria Recycling, Morgan Matroc, Biomet and De Puy CMW.

Sustainable use of materials; the materials cycle; materials failure; tribology and wear;

Recent projects

• Identifying sustainable solutions for carpet and textile flooring waste, Carpet Recycling UK and ERDF Centre for Global Eco-Innovation, MRes studentship, 2022-23
• Structural Elastomeric Fixings for Railway Applications, PhD studentship, 2021-2024
• Materials failure analysis expert witness reports (Smith Jones Solicitors and Fletchers Solicitors Group), 2020-2024
• Defining a Draft for a Zero Power Reactor Experiment for Molten Salt Reactors, EPSRC EP/V027239/1, 2021-2023
• Northern Power: Making Engineering and Physical Sciences Research a Domain for All in the North of England. ESPRC/UKRI Inclusion Matters EP/S012206/1
• Sir John Fisher Foundation, Engineering Outreach Schools’ Liaison Project, 2019-2023
• Post-consumer waste streams and the recycling of mattresses, Cumbria Recycling Ltd and ERDF CGE, MSc (Res) studentship, 2018-19
• Deformation Behaviour of Woven Fibre Elastomeric Composites, Libyan Government, PhD studentship, 2015-2019
• Steel Cell Research, Innovate UK and Ceres Power Ltd, Horsham, Knowledge transfer partnership (KTP), 2014-2018