Professor Sarah Hainsworth

Professor Sarah Hainsworth OBE FREng is Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean for the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Aston University, and a Professor of Materials and Forensic Engineering.

She was previously Head of Department of Engineering at the University of Leicester.  Before that she was the Graduate Dean at Leicester and in that role was responsible for the postgraduate research and taught postgraduate provision at the University.  From 1st December 2021 she will be the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Bath.

Her research interests are in forensic engineering related to stabbing and dismemberment; materials characterization; automotive tribology; and materials for future power plants.  She was also Director of ASDEC, an industry-focused centre for consultancy and research in Structural Dynamics.

Sarah is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Chartered Engineer, a Chartered Scientist, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and a Fellow of the Women’s Engineering Society.  In 2009 she was named as one of the Women’s Engineering Society’s Inspiring Technical Women and in 2015 she was awarded the Andrew H Payne Jr. Special Achievement Award by the Engineering Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Sarah was part of the team of people who applied modern forensic engineering and science tools to investigate the bones of Richard III with particular reference to understanding the wounds on the skeleton and relating those to the weapons that could have been used.