Professor David Butler, Dr Mayra Rodriguez and Professor Tim Quine

First of the second cohort of QUEX PhD students graduates with joint award from the Universities of Exeter and Queensland

A pioneering Anglo-Australian research partnership focused upon global sustainability and wellbeing is celebrating a new milestone after the first member of its second cohort of students was awarded their PhD.

Mayra Rodriguez received her doctorate at the University’s Winter Graduation last week, gained through the QUEX Institute – which brings together Exeter and the University of Queensland to tackle major global challenges through impactful interdisciplinary research, staff and student mobility and industry and community engagement programmes.

The joint PhD programme is a central pillar of the partnership, giving students the exciting opportunity to study in both the UK and Australia. The sixth cohort of QUEX students will start their studies in January 2023, bringing the total number supported to 52.

Mayra, pictured with Professor Tim Quine, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, and one of her supervisors, Professor David Butler, of Exeter’s Centre for Water Systems, is the first of the second cohort of QUEX students to graduate. Mayra applied her expertise in hydraulic modelling and sewer systems to her project focusing on green infrastructure and urban drainage resilience.

“Being involved in QUEX was an excellent experience as it allowed me to travel and collaborate with researchers in Australia, and helped fund my research conducted in Switzerland,” said Mayra, after she received her doctorate. “I hope my work will provide solutions to help urban areas become more resilient to climate change.”

Some of Mayra’s research was conducted in Topsham, where she looked at the impact of flooding, and also in the Swiss town of Fehraltorf, where she studied combined sewer overflows under current and future climate models. Her thesis makes the case for better spatial planning of green infrastructure to ensure that urban drainage systems are more resilient. Mayra will now take up a post based at Eawag in Switzerland researching urban drainage.

Earlier this year, Exeter and Queensland renewed their commitment to working together, signing an agreement committing to the QUEX partnership for another five years. Future plans include launching a new flagship Strategic Grants scheme to provide enhanced support for one area of shared world-leading excellence and a joint online Master’s programme in Global Environmental Futures in 2023. Further cohorts of QUEX PhD students will be funded and their projects will add to the growing catalogue of successes of QUEX students, whose work has already been published in leading journals such as Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, Nature Sustainability and Genome Medicine.

“Through QUEX, we have been able to provide opportunities for some of the brightest minds to tackle pressing global challenges under the guidance of world-leading academic colleagues from Exeter and Queensland and supported by their networks,” said Professor Quine. “Our congratulations go to Mayra for achieving her PhD in this key research field, and we look forward to many more emulating her in the coming years.”

Date: 19 December 2022