Dr Encarni Medina-Lopez

I am a Senior Lecturer in Ocean Observation. My research focuses on the use of remote sensing to study water, energy and environmental problems. In particular, I am interested in using multi and hyperspectral satellite imagery, in situ data, and machine learning techniques to investigate processes modelling the coastal environment. I also work on the application of satellite data to reduce the cost of marine renewable energy and better understand its environmental impact. I hold a PhD in Energy Systems & Dynamics of Biogeochemical Flows. I am a Turing Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), and a Chartered Engineer (CEng MICE).

Research

I am the Principal Investigator for the Failure Modes of Engineering (FeME) Network Plus project. This project was awarded £2.2 million in 2025 by EPSRC. We focus on engineering solutions for climate change and biodiversity loss, and their impact on women, children and underrepresented communities. You can read more about it here. If you want to collaborate, please get in touch!

I lead the Coastal and Environmental Remote Sensing Group (CEReS) at the School of Engineering. We study topics involving remote sensing of the coastal ocean, marine renewables and coastal engineering. Have a look at our work in the section Further Information below. 

You can find details on the research projects I am involved at present, and the ones I have worked on in the past in the link to "Research Publications" at the top of this page.

Leadership

I am the Deputy Director for Training of the UK Space Agency and NERC Centre for Satellite Data in Environmental Science, SENSE. I am also a co-investigator and part of the management team of the EPSRC and NERC Centre for Doctoral Training in Offshore Renewable Energy IDCORE. 

My story so far

I started my studies in Ingenieria de Caminos, Canales y Puertos (MEng Civil & Environmental Engineering) at the University of Granada (Spain) in 2008, focusing on marine energy and coastal engineering. In 2013 I did an MSc in Environmental Hydraulics, specialised in aero-hydrodynamics.

I moved in 2014 to Oxford, where I worked as a Researcher in Coastal Structures at HR Wallingford. During that time, I developed my computational fluid dynamics skills, analysing the effect of storms in breakwaters and wave energy converters. In 2015 I was awarded a Talentia Fellowship to pursue a joint PhD at the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with the University of Granada. 

From 2017, I worked at the University of Edinburgh as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Marine Energy, where I studied the life cycle and techno-economics of marine energy converters, as well as the numerical modelling of ocean energy arrays. Moreover, I was a Work Package leader for a €20 million H2020 project from the European Commission working on numerical tools for the optimisation of tidal energy farms. In 2018, I was awarded a Chancellor's Fellowship in Data Driven Innovation focusing on satellite applications for the ocean. In 2023, I was promoted to Senior Lecturer.

• PgCert (Postgraduate Certificate) in Academic Practice, PgCAP. University of Edinburgh, 2021 - 2022.
• PhD Energy Systems & Dynamics of Biogeochemical Flows. University of Edinburgh and University of Granada (Spain), 2015 - 2017.
• MSc Environmental Hydraulics. Universities of Granada, Malaga and Cordoba (Spain), 2013 - 2014.
• MEng Civil & Environmental Engineering (Ingenieria de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, 5 year degree). University of Granada (Spain), 2008 - 2013.

• CEng MICE, Chartered Engineer, Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
• FHEA, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
• Turing Fellow, The Alan Turing Institute.
• MASTS (Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). Former member of the Marine Energy Forum Steering Group.
• IMarEST (Institute for Marine Engineering, Science & Technology). Former student member.

At undergraduate level:

• Coastal Engineering 5 (Course Organiser), 10 SCQF credits.
• Interdisciplinary Group Design Project 4 (Course Organiser), Potable Water Supply, 20 SCQF credits.

Past courses I have taught:

• At undergraduate level: Programming Skills for Engineers 2, 10 SCQF credits (2020-2022)
• At postgraduate level: SENSE CDT, Python code carpentry and Google Earth Engine workshop (40 taught hours) (2020-2024).

• Remote sensing of the ocean.
• Marine renewables.
• Coastal science and engineering.
• Machine learning applications.

CEReS - Coastal and Environmental Remote Sensing Group

Current members

• Dr Segio Lopez-Dubon, Postdoctoral Marie Curie Fellow. Topic: Data-Driven Structural Testing for Tidal Energy. 2020 - present.
• Ed Holt, PhD student, SENSE CDT. Topic: Investigating the potential for catastrophic collapse of Greenland's lake-terminating glacier margins. 2021 - present. Co-supervised with School of Geosciences (Prof. Peter Nienow).
• Penny Clarke, PhD student, SENSE CDT. Topic: Using remote sensing tools to study ocean health and whale strandings. 2021 - present. Co-supervised with British Antarctic Survey (Dr Jennifer Jackson).
• Anneke Sperling, PhD student, SENSE CDT. Topic: Do ocean currents stick together? 2023 - present. Co-supervised with National Oceanography Centre (Dr Alejandra Sanchez-Franks).
• Liam McAlister, EngD student, IDCORE CDT. Topic: Offshore wind structures design sensitivity to metocean site conditions. 2024 - present. Co-supervised with SSE Renewables (Dr Alyona Naberezhnykh).
• Nishant Gaur, PhD student. Topic: Hydro-climatological extremes in the context of climate change. 2024-present. Co-supervised with Prof. Lindsay Beevers.
• Valentina Gonzalez, MEng student. Topic: Offshore solar resource assessment in the North Sea using remote sensing. 2024-present.

• Samantha Waugh, MEng student. Topic: Levelised Cost of Energy uncertainty estimation - A case study for offshore wind. 2024-present.

   

Past members

• Dr Simone Zen, Postdoctoral Research Associate. Topics:
  • Assessment of the Omo river and delta using satellite data. 2019 - 2021. 
  • Supergen ORE Hub funded project Satellite Climate Observation for Offshore Renewable Energy Cost Reduction (SCORE). 2020.
• Dr Emma McAllister, PhD. Topic: High-resolution satellite remote sensing of the coastal morphology. 2019 - 2024. Co-supervised with BGS (Dr Alessandro Novellino and Dr Andres Payo-Garcia) and Cefas (Dr Tony Dolphin).
• Dr Madjid Hadjal, PhD, Data Lab industrial PhD. Topic: Automated classification of ocean colour remote sensing for environmental monitoring and legislative compliance. 2018 - 2022. Co-supervisor, student based in University of Strathclyde (main supervisor Dr David McKee) in collaboration with Marine Scotland.
• Dr Solomon White, PhD student, SENSE CDT. Topic: High-resolution multispectral estimation of sea surface salinity and temperature. 2020 - 2024. Co-supervised with Cefas (Dr Tiago Silva).
• Melissa Cabrera Alfaro, MSc Geographical Information Science (School of Geosciences). Topic: The role of fishing refuge areas in the absorption of CO2. 2023-2024. 
• Joe Marsh-Rossney, PhD student, guest team member (based in School of Physics and Astronomy).
• Katie McWilliams, MEng Civil Engineering student, final year thesis. Topic: Sea Surface Salinity From Satellite Data, Machine Learning And Numerical Models. 2021 - 2022.
• Clementine Frere, MEng Civil Engineering student, final year thesis. Topic: Feasibility Study Of Coastsnap In The Edinburgh Shores. 2020-2021.
• Hubert Gurs, MEng Structural Engineering with Architecture student, final year thesis. Topic: Feasibility Study Of Coastsnap In The Edinburgh Shores. 2020-2021.
• Nick Heaney, MEng Civil Engineering student, final year thesis. Topic: Coastsnap Assessment For Adaptation To Python. 2020-2021.
• Marcin Filinger, BEng Civil Engineering student, final year thesis. Topic: Flood risk assessment in Scotland using satellite data and numerical models. 2019-2020.
• Simone Speltoni, Visiting student, MSc thesis. Topic: Modelling the interaction between marine energy converters and the coast (Collaboration with the University of Trento, Italy). Awarded best MSc thesis. 2019.