Sarah West
Centre Director and Professor

Profile

Biography

Sarah is a citizen science researcher and practitioner with over 15 years of experience designing, running and evaluating citizen science projects on topics ranging from air quality and biodiversity to parenting and mental health. She is passionate about increasing the diversity of voices involved in research, and is the founding member of SEI York's Citizen Science research group. Recent projects focus on air quality in schools (SAMHE, CHILI & CHEPA) and homes using low cost sensors, and exploring sustainability transitions (Ecological Citizens). Sarah is also SEI York's Centre Director and a coach at the University of York.

Prior to her PhD at the University of York, Sarah gained an MSc in Biodiversity and Conservation from the University of Leeds, and a BA Hons in Geography from St Peters College, University of Oxford.

Find Sarah on LinkedIn

Research

Overview

Please see my Pure profile above for details of recent projects. 

Available PhD research projects

I am keen to supervise students who are interested in using citizen science approaches in their work, or who would like to research the citizen science approach. See our post-graduate pages for further information.

Projects

Current projects

Air Hub: engineering healthy indoor environments - An interdisciplinary network established to understand particulate matter in indoor ai, its health impacts and effective and equitable ways to address it. 

CHILI - Working with schools to understand and improve children's health and education as school and nursery buildings are adapted for energy efficiency. 

AQuA - Action for Quality Aquatic Environments. Creating an inclusive and diverse community of practice to monitor Yorkshire's waterways and improve the value of aquatic citizen science.

CHEPA - Led schools engagement to co-design a web-based tool to enable schools to see the costs and benefits of installing HEPA filter units.

Ecological Citizen(s) - cultivating trans-disciplinary collaboration and research to enable a digital sustainable society for positive climate action. 

Youth LIVES - Youth LIVed Experience in Evidence Synthesis. Bringing young people into research around youth mental health.

INGENIOUS - Supported creation of policy (and other) impact from this project monitoring air quality in and around homes in Bradford.

Selected past projects

SAMHE - Led schools engagement, including co-designing a Web App, on this Schools' Air quality Monitoring for Health and Education project

DECIDE - Supported development of models to improve decision-making about biodiversity recording

Tupumue - exploring lung disease and air pollution in Kenyan children using participatory approaches

Open Air Laboratories (OPAL)network – a long-running environmental citizen science project in the UK

Moors for the Future Community Science project – monitoring the effects of climate change on species and habitats in the Peak District National Park (UK)

Air Quality Drivers in Nairobi- designing methods to monitor personal exposure to particulate matter pollution in informal settlements in Nairobi (Kenya)

AIR Network-  using methods derived from arts and humanities to explore the issue of air pollution in informal settlements in Nairobi (Kenya)

Parenting Science Gang– internal evaluator for this parent-led citizen science project (mainly UK participants)

Citizen Science and the Sustainable Development Goals– exploring the role of citizen science approaches in relation to the SDGs 

Research group(s)

Citizen science and other participatory approaches

Available PhD research projects

Sarah is keen to supervise students who are interested in using citizen science approaches in their work, or who would like to research the citizen science approach. See our post-graduate pages for further information.