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Abigail Clarke-Sather PhD
Abigail Clarke-Sather PhD
Associate Professor
Mechanical & Industrial Engineering (MIE), University of Minnesota Duluth
Applied Sustainable Product Innovation and Resilient Engineering (ASPIRE) Lab
Vision: Giving new purposes to textiles for healthier people, communities, and the universe
Abigail Clarke-Sather was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is a graduate of South High School. Dr. Clarke-Sather holds a B.A. in Physics from Earlham College, and a Graduate Sustainability Certificate, M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University. She was a post-doctoral scholar and Visiting Young Scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Lanzhou. Before academia she worked as a project manager at the International Center for Appropriate & Sustainable Technology (icastusa.org) collaborating on projects with utilities, government officials, farmers, and students. Previously, she worked at the University of Delaware in the Civil & Environmental Engineering and Fashion & Apparel Studies departments where she graduated two M.S. Civil Engineering students focused on measuring and improving the sustainability of bridge repair and inspection. Since joining UMD, Dr. Clarke-Sather has graduated four M.S. students, two focusing on smart wearable design and testing for medical applications and two others focusing on textile recycling. Dr. Clarke-Sather co-advised Engineers Without Borders student chapters for a decade at both University of Delaware and University of Minnesota Duluth. Her research and teaching areas focus on textile recycling, engineering for global development (EGD), sustainability decision-making, user-centered design, smart wearables for health, life cycle assessment and geotextiles.
Current and recent projects:
-creating textile recycling ecosystems through apparel recycling and product development including innovating mechanical textile recycling technology
-tracking kangaroo care duration between mothers and infants to improve infant health outcomes in neonatal intensive care units (see article and video presentation)
-respiration monitoring using wearables for astronauts (see video presentation by Electrical Engineering student Angela Martini)
-measuring the pressure compression garments provide for interventions including for children with ASD (see video presentation by M.S. in Mechanical Engineering graduate Michael Weber)
-measuring material properties of discarded used clothing for use as geotextiles
-addressing Food Insecurity in Duluth through support of community garden co-design for the St. Mark's Giving Garden through CAD design by Civil Engineering student Austin Konrath
-testing the toys UMD students designed for children with extraordinary needs (see video about B.S. in Mechanical Engineering graduate Micki Grover)
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