University of Surrey appoint Athena SWAN champion to be their new Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Society recently assisted the University of Surrey on the appointment of Professor Abigail Bristow as their new Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. As a previous member of the board of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, Abigail’s work particularly focuses on the negative effects of transport on the environment: namely noise and climate change.

The University of Surrey is a research-led institution pursuing learning, scholarship, and research that advances and disseminates knowledge. The University is committed to working closely with its students, business, government and civil society to transition knowledge to the benefit of humanity. Its Civil Engineering Department is one of the best in the world.

Abigail Bristow joins Surrey from her previous post as Professor of Transport Studies within the School of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough. With almost thirty years’ experience across Science and Engineering academia, her particular area of research expertise focuses upon two of the negative environmental effects of transport: noise and climate change. Aside from also working with the Royal Society of the Arts on the concept of ‘personal carbon trading’ she has also been a long-standing Athena SWAN champion, advocating for and recognising commitments to advancing the careers of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine. In her new role, Abigail looks forward to creating “the best possible environment for staff and students to do their best work, and also to convey to prospective students just how exciting a discipline this is.”