Student hopes to inspire with her research

Portsmouth University student Serena has been selected to star as a case study in Engineers On A Mission, a campaign run by Tomorrow's Engineers, for her plastic pollution research.

This week is the firm's annual Engineers Week, a campaign that aims to change the perceptions of engineering among young people.

Serena is a marine biologist studying for her PHD at Portsmouth University, which focuses on investigating microplastic pollution in wastewaters. She was chosen for the campaign because of her mission to prevent plastics from entering our waters.

She said: '˜My work on pollution is very topical at the moment. I decided to focus on plastic pollution because it affects all types of sea life. There's so much pollution from microplastics, and because I was working with oceans and sea life already I jumped on the chance to work on pollution prevention.' 

She hopes her research will help preserve rivers and oceans, and improve the technologies to prevent microplastics from entering marine ecosystems.

'˜It's important to raise awareness of these issues. It's about giving a message on how we can prevent plastic pollution.' she said.