Every year the Company awards a number of post-graduate Scholarships to reseachers advancing the field of instrumentation. The most prestigoous award is that of Beloe Fellow and we are pleased to announce this year’s award goes to Tom Rowan of Imperial College.
Tom Rowan completed a PhD in computational Hydraulics at Durham University in 2019. His work has since taken him to the Environmental and Water Resource Engineering group at Imperial College London. His current role involves assisting on multiple research projects and has led him to develop a number of new sensors (including open-source flowmeters, IoT water butts, and ruggedized natural voltage sensors). The main aim of his current work is to develop an automated system to safeguard costal aquifers (subsurface water supplies) using naturally occurring voltages to track the ingress of contamination (salt water).
With a strong technical and entrepreneurial background, Tom has worked to build and test many of the systems that he designs himself. He is also keen to develop key STEM skills in others, most recently designing desktop challenges for stem outreach during online sessions in lockdown. He hopes to be able to continue expanding hydrological sensor use, and to develop and engage stakeholders in the solutions of water based problems.