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 | Biography |  |
Environmental systems modelling and analysis Kate received her BE (Chemical Hons I) and BSc (Maths) from UQ in 1994. After working as a process engineer in New Zealand, she completed her PhD in environmental engineering at the University of Western Australia 1999-2002.
Dr O'Brien has been lecturing in chemical and environmental engineering at UQ since 2002, with some interruptions to care for her family.
Her research area is environmental systems modelling and analysis. Working in collaboration with ecologists, engineers and others, she develops and applies models at multiple scales to investigate environmental problems. Dr O'Brien uses a range of modelling techniques (incorporating process-based, statistical, conceptual and qualitative models), depending on the key questions of the project, data availability, expertise within the team, current process understanding and pre-existing model availability.
Eutrophication impacts have been the primary focus of her work. By collaborating with colleagues in ecology, she has assisted in the design and analysis of field experiments, so that data collected can be used to provide quantitative insights into system behaviour, and hence prediction of future impacts. Her current modelling work involves investigating the impacts of nutrient loads in coastal and freshwater systems (including Moreton Bay and Lake Wivenhoe in Queensland and New Zealand's Rotorua Lakes). She is interested in investigating system response (including different trajectories, regimes and tipping points) to external and internal forcings, such as nutrient enrichment, climate change and remediation actions.
She has also completed a number of other applied environmental modelling projects with collaborators in the fields of engineering and education.
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