Urban Pollution Research Centre (UPRC)
The UPRC has a diverse research portfolio encompassing all areas of urban environmental pollution, including air, water, soil and sediment. We are also involved in consultancy and training in pollution and water management for municipal, industrial and natural environments.
Our research and activities have recently been predominantly focussed on the urban water environment including stormwater management systems, water treatment technologies and pollution control. Environmental radioactivity, urban air quality and pollution monitoring are other research areas of specific interest.
The UPRC has about 15 members undertaking research, including academic staff, research fellows, and post-graduate students. We also work closely with staff in the Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC) and The Centre for Decision Analysis and Risk Management (DARM) enabling us to engage in a broad range of interdisciplinary research.
We have a proven track record of delivering quality-assured, robust, applied research results, and this is reflected both in our publication profile and in our current participation in numerous national and international collaborative research projects.
MPhil and PhD research with UPRC
Programmes are available leading to the degree of MPhil (two years) or PhD (three years). These are full-time courses and contain an element of taught course work accompanied by the development of a research programme including reading and discussion. The research develops into the second year (and third year for PhD) with regular contact with a supervisory group and culminates in the submission of a thesis. Opportunities exist for part of the experimental work to be conducted away from the University. For information on the application procedure please click here
The UPRC has access to well equipped, fully supported research facilities for experimental work. For further information on our research laboratories and analytical equipment please click here.
PhD students can potentially be funded by a variety of sources including research councils (such as the NERC, BBSRC, EPRC), Middlesex University, industrial sponsors, European sources and various other scholarships.
When available, funded PhD research projects are usually advertised on the appropriate university website and in the national press.
If you would like to undertake a postgraduate research degree in connection with the UPRC and have a novel research idea that is not yet funded, please contact Dr Lian Scholes to discuss this further as we may be able to support you in attracting funding for this research. However, you should be aware that this can be a long process requiring considerable preliminary work and funding is never guaranteed.
We are interested in supervising projects in the following areas:
- Water/air pollution
- Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS)
- Water treatment technologies
- Greywater reuse and recycling
- Soil/water/sediment ecotoxicology assessment using microbial biosensors (e.g. Microtox)
- Contaminated soils and remediation
