Dr Sakthy Selvakumaran

MA (Cantab), MEng (Cantab), PhD (Cantab), CEng, MICE

Fellow (B), Director of Studies, Postgraduate Mentor

College Roles

  • Isaac Newton Trust Research Fellow (B)
  • Director of Studies in Engineering (Part IA)
  • Postgraduate Mentor

Contact

Email: ss683@cam.ac.uk

Biography

Dr Sakthy Selvakumaran studied Engineering at the University of Cambridge (MA, MEng). She then lived and worked internationally in design, construction and R&D roles within industry and international development, becoming a Chartered Civil Engineer (CEng, MICE). Her roles in industry ranged from designing new bridges to working on sites to reconstruct housing destroyed by earthquakes. She returned to Cambridge for her PhD, spending part of her doctoral training as a Visiting Researcher with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and received the Institute of Engineering Technology (IET) Leslie H Paddle Award for her work. Her achievements include being named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe List (2016), and the Financial Times Top 100 Most Influential Women in UK Engineering list (2020), and being appointed to the Young Professionals Panel of the National Infrastructure Commission in the UK (2018). Dr Selvakumaran is the Isaac Newton Trust Research Fellow in Engineering at Newnham College.

Research Interests

Dr Sakthy Selvakumaran’s research interests focus on contributing toward more sustainable and resilient cities. She has particular expertise in using remote sensing (satellite monitoring) to understand its relevance, utilisation, and limitations to urban environments and civil engineering applications. Other research interests include topics which support overseas organisations she works with such as microhydro schemes in the Andes and sustainable wastewater treatment.