Professor Sarah Hainsworth is Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Durham University. Sarah leads on Durham’s Research and Innovation portfolio, including oversight of the 11 Research Institutes, research environment and impact, Doctoral Excellence Framework (REF), research and innovation outcome, partnerships and commercialisation.
Sarah was previously the PVC for Research and Enterprise at the University of Bath. Before that, she was the PVC and Executive Dean for the school of Engineering and Applied Science at Aston University. She was the Head of Department of Engineering at the University of Leicester and prior to that she was the Graduate Dean at Leicester and in that role she was responsible for the postgraduate research and taught postgraduate provision at the University. Sarah is currently a member of the Trustee Board of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Deputy Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee and was Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee between 2019-2022.
Sarah is a graduate of the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, where she gained both her undergraduate BEng (Hons) in Science of Engineering Materials and Postgraduate PhD in Tribology of Ceramics degrees.
In addition to her PVCR role, Sarah is a Professor of Materials and Forensic Engineering. Her research interests are in forensic engineering related to stabbing and dismemberment, materials characterization, automotive tribology, and materials for future power plants. Whilst at Leicester, she was Director of ASDEC, an industry-focused centre for consultancy and research in Structural Dynamics which won the 2015 RCUK Praxis Unico Impact Award for ‘Contribution to Business’ and ‘Overall Award’. In 2016, Sarah was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng): she is a Chartered Engineer, a Chartered Scientist, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining, and a Fellow of the Women’s Engineering Society. In 2009 she was named as one of the Women’s Engineering Society’s Inspiring Technical Women and in 2015 she was awarded the Awarded the Andrew H Payne Jr. Special Achievement Award by the Engineering Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. She was chair of the Diversity Outreach Committee of the AAFS between 2023 and 2025. Sarah was part of the team of people who applied modern forensic engineering and science tools to investigate the bones of Richard III with particular reference to understanding the wounds on the skeleton and relating those to the weapons that could have been used. Sarah was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to engineering and forensic science.