Katherine Curran

Katherine Curran is a Lecturer in Sustainable Heritage and Assistant Course Director at the Institute for Sustainable Heritage at the Bartlett School of Environment, Energy, and Resources.

Her research interests encompass the conservation of modern cultural heritage, polymer chemistry, degradation, and the analysis of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from historic objects.

She utilizes analytical techniques like SPME-GC/MS, portable mass spectrometry, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), and Near-Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy in her work.

Katherine was involved in the AHRC/EPSRC Science & Heritage Programme project 'Heritage Smells' that aimed to characterize VOC signatures of historic artefacts.

In her role as Assistant Course Director, she leads modules in Sustainable Strategies and Research Methodologies for both the MSc in Sustainable Heritage and the MRes SEAHA programs.

Her teaching interests focus on applying scientific methods to cultural heritage understanding, material composition and degradation, and the conservation of modern materials like plastic artefacts.

Katherine Curran pursued a PhD in Chemistry at University College Dublin and has held positions such as Lecturer in Sustainable Heritage at University College London, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Centre for Sustainable Heritage, University College London, Visiting Fulbright Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Postdoctoral Researcher at University College Dublin.