Tag Archives: WIRe

Water Infrastructure and Resilience

PhD Studentship in Water Infrastructure & Resilience (WIRe) CDT PhD Studentship: The future of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE)

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We are excited to announce the opportunity to join our group as a fully funded 2021 (WIRe) CDT PhD. This studentship is sponsored by EPSRC, Northumbrian Water and Scottish Water, and will be supervised by Professor David Graham (Newcastle) Professor Vanessa Speight (Sheffield), Andrew Moore (Northumbrian Water), & George Ponton (Scottish Water). The work will include a horizon scan of existing and potential WBE applications. Subsequent research will focus on sampling and hydraulic modelling of targeted sewer networks with the aim of piloting a general framework for future WBE. The ideal candidate will have a background in wastewater engineering or related applied science; skills and interest in biological and/or chemical methods; and numerical modelling or related skills.

If you find the topic interesting and meet the eligibility criteria (First or 2:1 Degree, preferably a MSc in relevant subject), then please apply here no later than 22 March 2021. The studentship is based at Newcastle University, with an extended placement at the University of Sheffield and regular involvement with industrial and government partners. WIRe offers technical and transferable skills training; international placements; and a generous training grant for professional development. 

The award starts September 2021 for a duration of four years. It covers all tuition fees and includes annual living expenses of £19,000. Furthermore, it provides additional funding to cover research costs and local, national, and international travel (conferences and exchanges).  

Change is the new normal: some ins and outs & exciting new projects

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Working under the pandemic has not been boring. Everyone in the group is working ridiculously hard, some people are leaving and new people are arriving, and we have gained a variety of exciting new projects, which is a remarkable success under such trying conditions. Unfortunately, Rui Xin returned home to China to finish her PhD, while Dr Vincenzo Padricello has joined Eχponent® to perform work closer to his PhD interests. However, Dr Pani Adamou recently returned to the group to work on our expanding wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) and NERC UK-India projects.

Relative to WBE, we were just awarded a research project by the Joint Biosecurity Centre called “Wastewater-based epidemiology for Her Majesty’s Correctional Service,” which will assess the value of WBE as an early warning of health conditions in contained facilities. The novelty with this work is that we are expanding wastewater analysis to include enteric bacterial pathogens, virus beyond SARS-CoV-2, AMR, and microbiomes. The work aims to assess the amenability of other infectious disease markers to WBE approaches. 

We also were recently awarded a new project by the Rising Tide Foundation called “Identifying Best Practice for Empowerment Through Entrepreneurial Freedom: A project for the marginalised in slum areas in Delhi, India.” This is an exciting multidisciplinary project led by Prof Pauline Dixon, studying social and technical approaches to improve the quality of life in several slum types in India. Dr Myra Giesen will move to this project on 1 April 2021 when it starts, and Dr Kelly Jobling will move part-time to the project later in the year when demands from her WBE work declines. 

Beyond the above work, we now have two Civil Engineering MEng students, Savannah Lawrence and Matt Day, performing their dissertation work on WBE data from DEFRA and JBC, while Katie Robins, PhD student, has just taken a part-time internship at DEFRA to work with their Senior Epidemiologist on merging environmental and human health data to enhance in health surveillance. Finally, we were just awarded a WIRe CDT PhD studentship, which will study “The future of wastewater-based epidemiology.” This is sponsored by the EPSRC, Northumbrian Water, and Scottish Water, and David and Dr Vanessa Speight at the University of Sheffield will supervise the studentship. An announcement will be made soon seeking applications. 

Although we are under lockdown, things are terribly busy here. I want to especially flag the heroic work by Marcos Quintela-Baluja and Kelly Jobling who are holding things together under these strange times.