Dr Maria E. Koulouri is a Research Associate at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Imperial. Her research focuses on resource recovery from wastewater and faecal sludge. She is an expert in pyrolysis treatment, with a focus on the recovery of biochar soil amendments and biofuels, and the optimisation of carbon sequestration solutions. Maria's PhD research addressed the urgent need to safely manage human waste from on-site sanitation facilities, to achieve a zero-pollution future with universal access to safe and sustainable sanitation services. Currently, she is involved in systemic circularity assessments and life-cycle analysis tools for bio-waste streams, with a focus on carbon-negative innovations and decision support systems.

Maria holds a MEng in Civil Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece and an MSc in Environmental Engineering from Imperial. After working at a global engineering consultancy as a Water and Environmental Engineering Consultant, she completed her PhD research at Imperial in 2024.