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Dharmesh Joshi and Deputy Master Martin Bigg, both Trustees of the Water Conservation Trust, visited Imperial to meet the staff and students we support through the Trust’s Bursary awards.

It was fascinating to hear the students describe the various routes that they had taken to attend the University to study on the Environmental Engineering MSc course.  They had strong commitments to sustainability and practical experience in delivering it.  Their biographies are below.

We also had a very interesting discussion with Professors Sue Grimes and Stephen Smith who lead the Environmental Engineering course. On average there are 70 students each year on the course which costs £18k for home students and £42k for international students.  The students then face the cost of living in London.  For 2024/25 the Trust offered bursaries of £5k to each university it supports.  If we are going to effectively support students who otherwise could not afford to join the course we would need to offer bursaries of £18k.  We agreed that supporting students at postgraduate level was the most effective way of helping young people into a career in water and environmental management.

Our grateful thanks to the students and staff for their time.

Clara Buckens

Clara is a student at Imperial College pursuing an MSc in Environmental Engineering. She graduated from University College London with a first-class BSc degree in Natural Sciences.

Clara has four years professional experience in research and communications on private sector sustainability. Her work has included event curation for The New York Times and public sector clients at policy junctures (COP27, COP28, London Climate Action Week, UN General Assembly and the World Economic Forum); analysing apparel brand transparency for the Fashion Transparency Index, and developing industry, investor and workforce-facing training materials for finance, construction and textile sectors.

She holds a BSc in Natural Sciences from UCL, with a major in organic chemistry and minors in cell and molecular biology (years 1&2) and science policy (year 3). Driven by deep concern for public and environmental health impacts of waste and a strong desire to work directly with budget holders, Clara joined the MSc programme in Environmental Engineering. She approaches engineering with reasonable techno-scepticism, wary that while science and technology are indispensable for addressing pollution and climate challenges, so are economic and social measures.

In her spare time, Clara is an amateur seamstress, regularly running clothing repair workshops to help people take better care of their clothes: with textiles representing one of the fastest growing waste streams and biggest contributors to drinking water contamination globally.

Juliette Fougeras de Lavergnolle

Juliette is a student at Imperial College pursuing an MSc in Environmental Engineering. She graduated from King’s College London with a first-class BEng degree in Electronic Engineering.

Juliette is a French student with a diverse international background, having lived in New York, Tokyo, and Paris. This multicultural experience has shaped her adaptability and curiosity about global challenges, particularly in engineering and sustainability.

Although sustainability was not always her career goal, her final year of Electronic Engineering at King’s College London changed her perspective. Through modules on renewable energy systems and conducting her final-year project on developing plant-based food alternatives, she discovered the power of engineering to address pressing environmental issues. Motivated to explore this path further, Juliette joined Ecovadis as a Customer Success intern, where she worked on strategies to reduce environmental impacts across industries, and it was during this role that her strong passion to contribute to sustainability grew. The experience at Ecovadis strengthened her commitment to making a difference, particularly in the water sector. During her academic journey she led a hydropower implementation project which deepened her interest in water sustainability. Her decision to pursue the Environmental Engineering Master’s degree was driven by its alignment with her aspirations and the incredible opportunity it provides to explore various aspects of the environment, especially concerned with water and waste treatments. She sees the MSc programme offering her a unique opportunity to build expertise in areas that are critical to addressing global challenges.

Juliette considers being nominated as a bursary awardee of the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators a great privilege that reinforces her passion for creating impactful solutions. She is enthusiastic to learn from the Company’s members and contribute to discussions about innovative approaches to water conservation. Juliette aspires to build a career in sustainability, focusing on developing solutions that address environmental challenges to ensure a more resilient future for communities worldwide.

Adrian Lee Hong

Adrian is a Spanish/Korean student at Imperial College pursuing an MSc in Environmental Engineering. He graduated from the University of Nottingham with a 2.1 Hons BEng in Chemical and Environmental Engineering. During his undergraduate programme Adrian benefitted from a year-long industrial placement as a Process Engineer with Mott MacDonald and this experience motivated his decision to pursue his MSc degree.

Adrian became interested in focussing on water treatment as he acknowledged that clean water is becoming a scarce commodity globally, and a resource of critical importance particularly given the growth in population and economic output. These challenges inspired him to want to learn more about water treatment, so he completed a placement year with Mott MacDonald under Thames Water as a process engineer working in the design feasibility and construction of small wastewater treatment plants in Thames valley.

During that time, he realised that when assessing plant designs, he was following asset standards and regulations without fully understanding the fundamental concepts in wastewater treatment, and the requirements for water companies to follow such rules or design standards. Adrian saw the opportunity of enrolling in the MSc programme in Environmental Engineering as a means of bridging these knowledge gaps, learning the core fundamentals of water/wastewater engineering, and building on this knowledge to focus on advanced water treatment technologies and practices, an aspect of the programme that is not offered elsewhere.

His aim is to specialise on the treatment emerging pollutants such as PFAS, hormones and micro plastics, and to develop a career path in the treatment of emerging pollutants and in so doing become a distinguished engineer in the field. Building on that experience, he would like to play a key role in advising on policymaking regarding water quality and water security in Europe.

In terms of his hobbies, he used to train in Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and now keeps fit doing workouts at the gym. In the summer, he loves soaking up the sun and enjoying a good barbecue; in winter, he enjoys cosying up with a warm bowl of soup and a good book!