Professor Catherine O’Sullivan has been a professor in the Geotechnics Section of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London since 2017, joining the department as a lecturer in 2004 after two years at University College Dublin. She completed her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002 and currently serves as Head of the Geotechnics Section and Editor in Chief of the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. Catherine’s research focuses on particulate soil mechanics, employing discrete element modelling (DEM) and experimental techniques like micro-computed tomography (μCT). Her work spans fundamental sand behaviour, reservoir sandstones, internal erosion, and lab test interpretation. She delivered the 2015 Geotechnique lecture and received the 2016 Shamsher Prakash Research Award. She supports prospective PhD and postdoctoral researchers, particularly in particulate soil behaviour, and has supervised students from diverse academic backgrounds. Catherine received the Imperial College President’s Award for Teaching Innovation in 2021 and has twice been nominated for the Student Choice Supervision Award. Her 2011 textbook, Particulate DEM: A Geomechanics Perspective (Taylor and Francis), is widely regarded and has been translated into Japanese. Areas of Expertise: Discrete element modelling, granular material micromechanics, μCT, and characterisation of granular materials.