Anwen Hughes

Anwen joined the SEI’s York Centre in August 2019 as Research Manager. Her responsibilities include management of the proposal preparation and submission process, providing project management support to larger projects, supporting the implementation of SEI York’s financial strategy and acting as a facilitator for collaboration and knowledge exchange between the University of York and all SEI centres (including the York Centre). She is Deputy Centre Director for Operations at SEI York.

She has worked in environmental sciences across industry, regulatory and academic sectors. Anwen has over 20 years’ experience of proposal preparation and costing, day to day project direction, management and technical leadership of multi-disciplinary environmental projects. She is a hydrogeologist with experience in water resources assessment, management and protection and in the investigation, risk assessment and remediation of land contamination for brownfield site redevelopment.  Her experience includes the application of tools for evaluating the sustainability of engineering projects. Anwen has also worked within multi-disciplinary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) teams and in facilitating knowledge exchange and technical support across global technical networks.

Anwen has a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry & Geological Sciences (University of Leeds) and an MSc in Hydrogeology (University of Birmingham).  She has PhD in hydrogeology/hydrochemistry gained while working as a NERC funded Research Associate, at the Universities of Birmingham and Leeds, in the use of stable isotopes to identify natural and anthropogenic sources of sulphate in UK aquifers.  Anwen is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC) and a registered Specialist in Land Condition (SiLC) in relation to brownfield redevelopment.

Career

Anwen has 25 years’ experience in the environmental sector having worked in academia, as an environmental regulator and most recently in consultancy. She started her career as a laboratory geochemist and then worked as a geologist for a site investigation contractor.  On completion of an MSc she took up a post as a Research Associate at the University of Birmingham. She has worked with the Environment Agency in the UK as an area hydrogeologist and also in a seconded role as a Senior Scientist at Head Office, responsible for policy development and implementation. Subsequently, Anwen was employed in the global environmental and engineering consultancy sector with Carl Bro (now SWECO) and, prior to joining SEI-Y, with Golder Associates.