Bella Nesti

Bella Nesti is an MRes + PhD student at the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment (FIBE3 CDT). Her PhD research will be on designing construction materials for passive environmental remediation, to address the inefficiency and unsustainability of traditional remediation practices. Her project will be supervised by Prof. Abir Al-Tabbaa and will be based in the Geotechnical and Environmental Research Group.

Before coming to Cambridge, Bella graduated in 2024 from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science and Engineering. As a senior thesis project, she designed an oscillating foil hydroelectric generator for use in streams and low-flow scenarios. Her other academic focuses included water infrastructure design (with Engineers Without Borders) and environmental toxicology.

In the summer of 2023, Bella worked as a research assistant in the E-Aviation group at the Technical University of Munich. There, she aided the development of an oscillating hydrofoil propulsion system for environmental drones. In addition to this research, Bella has worked with the Wofsy and Keutsch groups at Harvard on methane plume detection and indoor air pollution, respectively. Her MRes and PhD research will be a culmination of these research interests, contextualized by the broader CDT theme of ‘Unlocking Net Zero’.