Surya Sujathan

Dr Surya Sujathan is a Research Associate in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney, specialising in contaminant fate and transport in natural and engineered systems. She completed her PhD in Environmental Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 2024, where she investigated the mechanisms governing the mobilisation of naturally occurring uranium in aquifers of the Indo‑Gangetic Plain. She holds a B.Tech from the College of Engineering Trivandrum and an M.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, where she was awarded the competitive DAAD–IIT Master Sandwich Scholarship to conduct part of her research at Leibniz Universität Hannover in Germany.

Before commencing her doctoral studies, she worked as a Junior Research Fellow at IIT Delhi, developing algal–bacterial biofilm reactor systems for decentralised greywater treatment in rural communities. Her current research at the University of Sydney focuses on advancing the understanding of micro‑ and nanoplastic fate and transport in terrestrial environments, along with developing improved analytical and experimental methods for detecting and characterising these particles. She has published in leading environmental engineering journals and has received multiple distinctions, including the GD Aggarwal Award for the most innovative thesis in Environmental Engineering.