WISE CDT

Centre for Water SystemsEducationWISE CDTImpact and LegacyOther Awards and Recognition

Other Awards and Recognition

WISE CDT students and graduates have been recognised in numerous and diverse ways. Recent examples are:

  • Dr Jessica Penny (Exeter, Cohort 4) was nominated by the University of Exeter’s Centre for Water Systems for the 2023 Water Conservation Trust Dissertation Prize. The Water Conservation Trust is The Worshipful Company of Water Conservators’ charity and undertakes valuable work supporting access to water and environmental education, which includes providing student bursaries and prizes. Jess received her prize in London in early 2024. Jess was also part of the winning team in the 2023 Water Industry Forum Team Challenge for Young Water Professionals, with the theme of ‘The importance of nature-based solutions for a sustainable society’. Jess’ team worked on creating innovative ideas for introducing nature-based solutions to school children.
  • Dr Ioanna Stamataki (Bath, Cohort 1), Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering at the University of Greenwich, received the Inspirational Teaching Award in the University’s Student Led Teaching Awards 2023.
  • Dr Andrew Barnes (Bath, Cohort 4), Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bath, received the Most Inspirational Lecturer award (Meme Supreme) in April 2024.
  • Dr Olivia Milton-Thompson (Exeter, Cohort 2), Principal Geochemist at WSP, was honoured by her colleagues in WSP’s November 2024 Excellence Awards ceremony, winning the Technical Excellence award.

A selection of earlier cases spanning the four WISE CDT partner universities is provided below:

  • The Guardian highlighted England’s river water quality in a September 2022 article, which featured an interview with Dr Barnaby Dobson (Bristol, Cohort 1) in relation to his research at Imperial College London. Barney commented on water quality risks and the hot topics of testing, sampling and monitoring. The Guardian article also cited Barney’s new publication, produced as part of the NERC-funded CAMELLIA project and co-authored with Imperial College colleagues, who include WISE External Examiner Professor Ana Mijic.
  • Dr Olivia Bailey (Bath, Cohort 2) featured on a World Water Week 2022 talk show on improving global public health alongside her Arup colleague and former WISE student, Joseph Shuttleworth. Olivia and Joe discussed the step-change that wastewater-based epidemiology could offer for enhanced insight and equality in health monitoring, improving public health across the globe. The World Water Week talk show followed on from Arup’s report, Wastewater for Health, a guide to implementing wastewater monitoring in low-resource settings, which was project managed by Olivia.
  • The University of Exeter’s Student Employee of the Year award aims to recognise and celebrate students who successfully combine study with part-time or temporary work. Cristina Coker (Exeter, Cohort 5) was nominated under the 2022 ‘Community’ award category for improving community engagement.
  • Dr Nicolas Hanousek (Cardiff, Cohort 5) was awarded 3rd place in the John F Kennedy Student Paper Competition at the 39th IAHR World Congress, held in June 2022. Nick was one of 12 finalists, shortlisted from a total of 91 applicants, who presented their work at a special IAHR Congress session and were all acknowledged by the jury for their achievements. Nick’s paper was entitled ‘Assessing the Sensitivity of Tidal Range Energy Models to Water Level Accuracy’.
  • The Young Hydrologic Society (YHS) is a bottom-up initiative that aims to stimulate interaction and active participation of young hydrologists within the hydrological community. Dr Lina Stein (Bristol, Cohort 3) was appointed by her fellow board members as 2021-22 YHS Chair and served a two-year term. Lina has continued her involvement with YHS, serving as President and as a Board member, and YHS’ reach is expanding globally, with initiatives now also in India, the USA, Brazil and Morocco.
  • Dr James Rand (Bath, Cohort 5) was awarded a Kenneth H Reckhow Student Scholarship in December 2021 by the North American Lake Management Society (NALMS), a non-profit organisation focusing on the management and protection of lakes and reservoirs. James was one of the first recipients of this scholarship, awarded to graduate students to support their research. James benefited from his scholarship through undertaking a 2022 research visit to 7 Lakes Alliance and Colby College in Maine, USA, where he spent a month conducting experiments, learning the practical craft of lake science, and meeting up with research groups.
  • In November 2021 Dr Sebastian Gnann (Bristol, Cohort 3) was awarded a University of Bristol Doctoral Dissertation Prize for his PhD thesis ‘Baseflow Generation at the Catchment Scale - An Investigation using Comparative Hydrology’. The University’s Research Degrees Examination Board awards an annual prize for outstanding excellence within each faculty. The six winners for 2021 were picked from a pool of 510 submissions, with Sebastian winning the Faculty of Engineering prize.
  • Dr Stephanie Müller (Cardiff, Cohort 4) was awarded ‘Best Paper’ at the 9th International Symposium on Environmental Hydraulics in July 2021, for her ‘outstanding’ extended abstract on ‘Fish Swimming Behaviour and Kinematics in the Wake of a Vertical Axis Turbine’. 
  • The 21st IWA Young Water Professionals Conference (IWA YWP) ran an online poster competition in 2020, with the aim of bringing together members of the IWA YWP research community to share their research, network and engage in scientific debate. The award for ‘best interaction’ - the poster stimulating the greatest online audience participation, including the quality of questions and answers - was awarded to Dr Catherine Leech (Cardiff, Cohort 4). Catherine’s poster was judged to have ‘demonstrated an exceptional level of engagement’.
  • A group of WISE CDT students - as ‘Team Coronasaurus’ - participated in a week-long NERC COVID-19 Digital Sprint Hackathon in June 2020. Dr Arran Cooper-Davis, Dr Mikkel Lykkegaard and Cristina Coker (all Exeter, Cohort 5) and Dr James Rand (Bath, Cohort 5) were tasked with using NERC and other publicly available databases to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown and recovery measures on meeting the Paris Agreement and net zero targets. Looking at the way many organisations and companies had rapidly adapted to alternative and home working practices, the team proposed a blended 2+2 working week - longer working days with two days in the office and two at home, plus an extra day off per week - which achieved a reduction in UK CO2 emissions by 10-20%. Commended for their analysis, modelling and informative YouTube video, Team Coronasaurus were awarded 3rd place overall.
  • Dr Bikash Ranabhat (Cardiff, Cohort 4) was awarded Best Poster Prize at the 6th Partnership for Research in Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMaRE) Conference held at Cardiff University in July 2019. Bikash’s poster was entitled ‘Experimental testing and numerical study of a turbine for hydroelectricity’.
  • Dr Olivia Cooke (Bath, Cohort 1) was awarded Best Presentation Prize at the 13th British Hydrological Society National Symposium in September 2018.
  • Dr Rosanna Lane (Bristol, Cohort 2) was awarded Best Poster Presentation at the British Hydrological Society Peter Wolf Symposium 2017. This event took place at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) in Wallingford, where Rosanna went on to work as a Hydrological Modeller.