Find out what our researchers have been up to: conference presentations, workshops, and more

Mercy wins Best Poster award at the 2nd IWA Young Water Professionals European Conference

Congratulations to Mercy Adagayi (Cohort VI), who won the award for Best Poster at YWPEU 2026 in Milan in June 2026. Mercy’s poster was titled ‘PFAS Mass Balance in a Drinking Water Plant’, exploring a new approach to track the movement of PFAS through different drink water treatment stages. The conference was a great networking opportunity, giving Mercy the chance to discuss her research with researchers and industry professionals from across Europe. Mercy engaged in a technical tour of Alfa’s water facilities and the historic Panperduto Dam, gaining insight into water treatment and resource management practices in northern Italy.

a woman smiles holding a scientific poster
Mercy with her poster and prize certificate
a woman smiles and poses for a picture in front of a water treatment facility, she is wearing a white top and a yellow high visibility vest
Mercy on the technical tour

Muna Hassan attends AD19

The 19th IWA World Conference on Anaerobic Digestion took place from 9-13 June 2026, in València, Spain. Muna Hassan (Cohort V) attended the conference, presenting a poster of her research titled ‘Suppressing Methane Emissions from Sewage Sludge Digestate’. Muna’s poster was shortlisted into the top 15% out of over 400 posters - congratulations! During the conference, delegates enjoyed a technical tour of a wastewater treatment site near València, and were treated to traditional Valèncian performances as part of the Gala dinner.

a woman stands smiling in front of a large domed building at an industrial site. the sun is shining. the woman is holding her arms out wide.
Muna at the wastewater treatment site visit
a woman stood next to a scientific poster
Muna with her poster

Doreen travels to Sweden for conference

Doreen Machibya (Cohort VI) was in Luleå, Sweden, for the 9th IAHR Europe Congress, Innovating Hydro-Environment Engineering for a Sustainable Future: Arctic Waters and Beyond in June 2026. Doreen delivered a presentation titled ‘Estimating Distance to Full Transverse Mixing Downstream of a Sewer Outfall’ in the Urban Water Systems session. The conference including a visit to Storforsen, one of the largest rapids in Europe!

a woman stands smiling at the camera. Behind her is a river with trees on the banks. the sky is blue.
Doreen at Storforsen
A woman stands on a stage in front a large screen. she is stood at a lectern delivering a talk. the audience is not pictured.
Doreen presenting

CDT WIRe PhD students invited to give talks at international seminar

Representing the CDT WIRe programme, Linda Alobaidy (Cohort VI), Lydia Mahan (Cohort VI), and Roman Tijsseling (Cohort V) were invited to present their cutting-edge water infrastructure projects at a seminar hosted by the Department of Water Resources Engineering (Avdelningen för Teknisk vattenresurslära) at Lund University Sweden, in June 2026. The presentations covered a diverse range of impactful research:

  • Lydia discussed her research on quantifying the wider benefits of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), focusing on vital methodology to evaluate biodiversity, habitat creation, and thermal comfort within urban water systems

  • Roman presented his work on the spatial analysis of low-turbidity data, demonstrating how absolute turbidity supply baselines can be tracked spatially to assess and monitor the long-term performance of assets like pipes and service reservoirs

  • Linda shared her topology-driven approach using Complex Network Theory (CNT) and machine learning to map, rank, and predict zonal discolouration risks and customer contacts within drinking water distribution systems

The session provided a fantastic platform to highlight how CDT WIRe research is providing collaborative, data-driven solutions for real-world water and environmental management challenges. The presentations were warmly received by the international audience, sparking an engaging Q&A session that evolved into lively discussions over a traditional Swedish fika and cake. Following the seminar, the team enjoyed a couple of days exploring Sweden's beautiful natural scenery. The students thank their colleagues in Lund for the invite and their hospitality: Shifteh Mobini, Magnus Persson, and Johanna Sörensen.

a woman stands next to a projector screen
Lydia presenting
a woman and a man stand next to a projector screen
Linda and Roman presenting

WIRe PhD student leads international workshop

In May 2026, Newcastle University, University of Agriculture in Krakow (Poland) and The National University of Water and Environmental Engineering (Ukraine) held a 2-day workshop in Krakow to celebrate four years of academic partnership and discuss future project collaboration and ongoing research. The first day was spent developing the foundations for a joint application to create a water security-focused MSCA Doctoral Network and delivering training for water managers in Ukraine, in collaboration with the University of Maryland (USA) and Mykolaiv Water Hub. The second day comprised of a workshop and discussions on post-war reconstruction priorities, led by WIRe PhD student Joshua Weatherill-Frow (Cohort VI). WIRe attendees also included Claire Walsh and Jaime Amezaga. Joining the event was Olha Shevchuk, Senior Lecturer from NUWEE who was part of the team who led our Ukraine Summer Challenge with Josh at Newcastle in 2024.

a man delivering a presentation to a room of people set up like a classroom
Josh leading the workshop
a woman presenting in front of a classroom of people
Claire presenting

Kaeli Brazier presents research at conference in Norway

Kaeli Brazier (Cohort IV) was in Trondheim, Norway, to attend the 11th International Conference on Sewer Processes and Networks of the Joint IWA/IAHR Working group on Urban Drainage (SPN11), from 19-22 May 2026. Kaeli presented a poster titled ‘Evaluating optical techniques to measure sediment deposition patterns around surcharging manholes’. Whilst in Norway, Kaeli was able to enjoy the local scenery by hiking and kayaking around the fjords!

a woman stands next to a scientific poster
Kaeli's poster
a kayak in a Norwegian fjord
Kayaking in a fjord

Freya Thornley travels to the Netherlands for a conference after North American placements

The SETAC Europe 36th Annual Meeting took place in May in The Netherlands. Freya Thornley (Cohort V) presented a poster titled ‘Investigating the Impacts of Pesticides on the Plant Proteome’. Before this, Freya had been travelling around North America, completing placements at Mount Alison University, Canada, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), USA. In Canada, Freya was learning the software to manage the large dataset of proteins she collected in the lab in the UK. At WHOI, Freya extracted proteins using a nanoflow pump to analyse the amount of different proteins in her samples. While travelling, Freya was able to enjoy the local wildlife, including wetland and coastal bird watching!

A woman stands in front of laboratory equipment
Freya with the lab equipment at WHOI
birds standing on wooden posts in the sea
Cormorants at the beach near WHOI
a wooden boardwalk across some wetlands with blue skies
The waterfowl park near Mount Alison University

CDT WIRe PhD students attend WDSA/CCWI 2026

In May, several WIRe PhD students travelled to Cyprus to attend the 4th International Conference on Water Distribution Systems Analysis & Computing and Control in the Water Industry (WDSA/CCWI 2026) and present their research. Mohammad Shekofteh (Cohort V) presented about his research on ‘Understanding the Acoustic Behaviour of Leaks in Pressurised Water Pipes’. Jasper Wressell (Cohort VI) delivered a presentation titled ‘An assessment of innovative approaches to service reservoir ingress monitoring’. Linda Alobaidy (Cohort VI) gave a talk on ‘A Topology-Driven Approach Applying CNT to Identify Zonal and Pipe-level Drinking Water Distribution System Discolouration Risk’. Roman Tijsseling (Cohort V) discussed ‘Spatiotemporal Analysis of Low-Turbidity Data to Assess Drinking Water Distribution System Performance’.

5 people stand in a row smiling at the camera
WIRe students and colleagues
A man presents with a powerpoint presentation behind him
Jasper presenting
a man presents with a projector screen behind him
Roman presenting

Madeleine Tate presents a poster at EGU26

A woman stands in front of a scientific poster titled' Urban Trees and Flood Resilience: Monitor, Evaluate and Optimise'
Madeleine with her poster

Madeleine Tate (Cohort VI) was in Vienna, Austria, in early May 2026 to attend the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2026. Madeleine presented a poster titled 'Urban Trees and Flood Resilience: Monitor, Evaluate and Optimise' and had some really valuable discussions with researchers working across related fields. On her experience, Madeleine said 'The conference was a great opportunity to learn about current research developments, connect with others in the field, and gain new ideas relevant to my own work.'

Emily Blackburn travels to the USA for the 2026 Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Conference

Emily Blackburn (Cohort VI) recently travelled to Illinois, USA, where she presented a talk titled ‘Statistical analysis to reveal relationships between PFAS content and catchment characteristics in UK surface water’ during the PFAS session of the 2026 Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Conference. The event was a great networking opportunity, offering lots of discussions on topics related to Emily’s work.

Emily at the conference
Emily's title slide

Scottish Water: Future of Water Quality Mini-Conference

Nick Donati (Cohort VI) was up in Scotland for Scottish Water’s internal ‘mini-conference’ on the Future of Water Quality. Nick delivered a presentation on his research, titled ‘Somatic Coliphage Prevalence in Scotland’. The event was a useful opportunity for Nick to meet colleagues at Scottish Water and share updates on his project, as well as get insight into current water quality challenges and innovations, with talk topics including chlorination, biological activated carbon filters, and regulation

A man presents, he is pointing at a screen with a powerpoint slide. the audience is behind the photographer and out of shot
Nick presenting

MP visits Cranfield University with Affinity Water

On 23 January 2026, Mr Blake Stephenson, MP for Mid Bedfordshire, visited Cranfield University with Danny Coffey and Joe Shorten from Affinity Water to see the world-class research being done by our colleagues in water research. Blake Stephenson is interested in the impact of agriculture and soil management practices on hydrology. Affinity Water is one of CDT WIRe’s end-user partners, sponsoring Matthew Pitt’s project on ‘The influence of tillage methods on water transport through the whole soil profile’. Matt met with Blake during his visit, along with Peter Jarvis and Andrea Momblanch. Andrea and Matt led demonstrations of the facilities at Cranfield, including the soil columns and erosion rigs used to research infiltration, runoff, and erosion for different soil treatments. Matt delivered a presentation on his PhD findings so far, alongside Rob Simmons, followed by Danny Coffey offering an overview of Affinity Water’s work on catchment management.

Matt shared: ‘It was a pleasure to show Blake around the facilities and showcase what Cranfield University and its research is capable of doing. I'm grateful to be able to cover some of what my research can give to the wider scientific community, and hope it helps in explaining the potential benefits and caveats of conservation agriculture.’

three people looking at experimental equipment set up to study soil
Matthew Pitt (left) and Andrea Momblanch (centre) demonstrating the facilities at Cranfield University for Blake Stephenson (right)
six people stand in a row smiling towards the camera
From left to right: Danny Coffey, Matthew Pitt, Andrea Momblanch, Peter Jarvis, Blake Stephenson, Ron Corstanje
2025 activities
2024 activities
Earlier activities