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Emma C. Edwards

(She/Her)
Career Development Fellow in Engineering, University of Oxford

Emma completed her BSc in mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012. She then worked as a research assistant for a year at the University of Edinburgh's Institute for Energy Systems, where she was introduced to wave energy. Emma completed her PhD at MIT in 2020, and her thesis, supervised by Professor Dick Yue, was titled ‘Optimization of the geometry of axisymmetric point absorber wave energy converters.’ She then held a part-time postdoctoral position at MIT with Professor Yue for a year.

She then completed a postdoctoral research fellowship from 2021-2023 at the University of Plymouth, working with Professor Deborah Greaves and Dr Martyn Hann, expanding her expertise to floating offshore wind turbines and physical modelling at one of the global hubs for offshore renewable energy research. From 2018-2022, in addition to her PhD and postdoctoral research, Emma competed as professional cyclist. In October 2023 she started as a Career Development Fellow in Engineering at St Peter's College, University of Oxford.

Her research focuses on fluid mechanics and its application to offshore renewable energy (ORE). Her main area of interest is around the hydrodynamics of wave-structure interaction, particular for floating bodies, and its impact on the performance of devices--principally floating offshore wind turbines and wave energy converters.

Experience

  • 2023–present
    Career Development Fellow in Engineering, University of Oxford
  • 2021–2023
    Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Plymouth
  • 2020–2021
    Postdoctoral research associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 2013–2014
    Research associate, University of Melbourne
  • 2012–2013
    Research assistant, University of Edinburgh

Education

  • 2020 
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PhD
  • 2012 
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, BSc

Publications

  • 2024
    Trends in floating offshore wind platforms: A review of early-stage devices, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
  • 2023
    Evolution of floating offshore wind platforms: A review of at-sea devices, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
  • 2023
    Real-time hybrid testing of a floating offshore wind turbine using a surrogate-based aerodynamic emulator, ASME Open Journal of Engineering
  • 2022
    Optimisation of the geometry of axisymmetric point-absorber wave energy converters, Journal of Fluid Mechanics
  • 2014
    Verification within wave resource assessments. Part 1: Statistical analysis, International Journal of Marine Energy
  • 2014
    Verification within wave resource assessments. Part 2: Systematic trends in the fit of spectral values, International Journal of Marine Energy