Hydro Nation Scholar Hanna Peach will be completing her PhD at the University of Edinburgh supervised by Dr Andrew Free (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Eulyn Pagaling (James Hutton Institute). Her PhD will be focused on engineering microbial communities to remove pharmaceutical waste from wastewater and waterways. Hanna is interested in bioremediation and ecological policies which govern the handling of waste products, and in turn, the protection of ecosystems. During her PhD, Hanna hopes to intern at James Hutton Institute with social scientists to study the link between science, policy, public perception of policy and community engagement in environmental management.

Originating in New Zealand, Hanna has earned a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences from Victoria University of Wellington and a Master of Science (First-Class Honours) from the University of Waikato. She also worked as a food microbiologist and a research assistant at GNS Science – in the Geomicrobiology Research Group – where she studied extremophilic fungi, methanogens, volcanic soil microbiology, persistence mechanisms for alpine volcanic soil taxa, and assisted sampling for the 1000 Springs Project.