Dr Sarah Crossland
Dr Sarah Crossland is an exceptional tribology researcher who combines her engineering and physics experience alongside her clinical expertise to bring a novel approach to tribology. Having completed a Master of Physics degree in 2015, Sarah moved into the applied health world of Prosthetics and Orthotics, achieving a BSc in 2018 from the University of Salford. During this degree, she was already utilising her physics background, completing a dissertation entitled ‘Using Principles of Soft Matter Physics as an Alternative Approach to Shape Capture for Prostheses/Orthoses’ – aiming to improve the mapping of the skin/body surface to reduce the risk of skin breakdown at the interacting surfaces of external medical devices.
As a clinically trained Prosthetist/Orthotist, Sarah started her PhD in 2018 through the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Integrated Tribology at the University of Leeds, under the supervision of Prof Claire Brockett and Prof Peter Culmer. Throughout her PhD Sarah maintained her clinical practice as an Honorary Orthotist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, which enabled her to assess and prescribe orthotic devices and translate her clinical experience into her tribology PhD.
During her PhD, Sarah has developed novel methods for characterising strain in the skin on the plantar aspect of the foot as a surrogate measure for shear during gait, working towards a risk assessment tool to predict regions of the foot at risk of developing diabetic foot ulcers. Her work has already been translated into clinical application and has provided a platform for several other research projects. A particularly key aspect of the project was Sarah’s development of methods to use speckle patterns on the foot/in the shoe to enable digital image correlation analysis to be used in mapping strain across the entire foot during walking.
Sarah has published four research papers to date from her PhD and has been the recipient of several awards including the STLE Platinum Poster Prize (2022), IMechE Healthcare Technologies Student and Early Career Awards Best Bioengineering Poster (2023) and runner up in the Best Bioengineering Project Video (2022), and 1st place podium award at TriboUK annual conference (2022).
Throughout her PhD, Sarah made a major contribution to the delivery of undergraduate teaching and project supervision as a graduate teaching assistant, achieving Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. But more significantly, Sarah’s commitment to outreach has been remarkable. A recipient of a Royal Society Partnership Grant to deliver a short course around healthcare with a local college, and UKRI/BSA funding to support a community project to encourage 11-14 year older in STEM amongst the Leeds Syrian community, Sarah has made a huge contribution to local outreach and engagement with engineering and healthcare – which was recognised with a Faculty of Engineering Equality and Inclusion award (2020).
Sarah now continues her biotribology research as a lecturer in Medical Engineering at the University of Hull. Her expertise has also been recognised internationally with an invitation to join an international taskforce around the diabetic foot. She also continues her outreach and support for the next generation of engineers and scientists by acting as an application mentor supporting under-represented students with UCAS personal statements when applying for engineering courses.
Sarah is an extremely talented tribologist, who has already made a significant research contribution to the community whilst ensuring continued excellence in engineering by bringing on the next generation. The 2023 Tribology Bronze Medal is a wonderful recognition of her early career success and commitment to tribology and engineering.