Aberystwyth University

David Kay is Professor of Environment and Health at Aberystwyth University. He has acted as consultant and/or adviser on standards for recreational and drinking water to WHO, EU, USEPA, NERC, EPSRC, DEFRA, DWI, HPa, Scottish Government, Environment Agency, SEPA and WRc. He directed three EU RTD projects designed to strengthen the science evidence-base for revision of the 2006 Bathing Water Directive (EPIBATHE, VIROBATHE and VIROCLIME). Recently, David Kay acted as:

• specialist adviser to the House of Lords, European Communities Select Committee enquiry into the revision of the EU Bathing Water Directive;
• consultant to EU-DGXI on revised standards for bathing waters throughout the community;
• member Scientific Advisory Committee to NERC on the Environment and Human Health Initiative;
• member of the WHO steering group on diffuse pollution from livestock wastes and the effects on human health;
• adviser to the WHO on recreational water Guidelines design and water-related risk assessment;
• consultant to WHO and UNEP on the development of global disease burden assessment in the area of water and sanitation and the water and sanitation data used in the design of sustainable Development Goals
• adviser to USEPA on revision of the US Bathing water quality Guidelines; and
• consultant to the WHO and EU on the revision of the Bathing Water Directive (2006).

Dr Mark Wyer studied catchment nutrient dynamics for his MSc in Canada and his PhD in Wales. As a post-doctoral scientist, he has pioneered UK investigations into catchment microbial dynamics and delivery of faecal indicator organisms and pathogens to near-shore coastal waters. He has published over 100 scientific papers and reports in this area and completed associated work on the health effects of marine and fresh water recreational activities.

He led the work on real-time modelling of bathing water quality which took the Swansea Bay study site in the EU-funded Smart Coasts project from and ‘at-risk’ bathing water to a consistently ‘Good’ classification.  Mark is managing the Wales field teams for the Acclimatize project and will lead on data collection, collation, cleaning, analysis and reporting. In his spare time he loves hill walking and playing acoustic music.

Arwyn Edwards is Reader in Biosciences in the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences and Director of the Aberystwyth University interdisciplinary Centre for Environmental Microbiology. His research interests focus on the interactions between microbes in the environment and global challenges, and he has applied novel methods for genomics-based analyses of microbial communities across the world. He is currently an advisor to the Welsh Government on environmental science aspects of COVID-19. He has published over 60 papers since his 2009 PhD and currently leads two UKRI funded projects. Arwyn is leading the microbial source tracking component of ACCLIMATIZE.

Paula Hopkins has been the Senior Administrator for the Centre for Research into Environment and Health (CREH) since 1990.  Paula is responsible for clerical and financial audit aspects of EU structural fund projects completed by CREH. Previous projects include Smart Coasts Sustainable Communities (also with UCD in Ireland).  Other responsibilities have included public liaison, recruitment of field teams and procurement within Welsh Government and EU funded projects.

Carl Stapleton has over twenty-five years experience of research and consultancy in the fields of water quality, riverine, estuarine and coastal processes and geomorphology.  At the Centre for Research into Environment and Health Carl has been involved in a diverse range of water quality projects investigating potable water quality, bathing water quality, microbial and nutrient budget modelling, microbial tracers, microbial source tracking and examining the potential for eutrophication in coastal waters.

Carl has also reported on bathing water epidemiology, the impact of improved waste water treatment on disease burdens, the efficacy of treatment processes and has conducted novel research into the impacts of UV disinfection processes on untreated storm sewage effluents. Carl has extensive experience designing and managing research projects involving the deployment of large field teams, often involving the coordination of survey teams based on land and offshore (i.e. boat-based).

Dr Cheryl Davies gained a PhD in the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Newcastle upon Tyne. She has 25 years post-doctoral research experience covering a wide range of aspects of public health, water and wastewater microbiology. She was previously employed by WRc (UK), and CSIRO, Sydney Water, and the University of New South Wales (Australia) as a research scientist, and has worked on a broad range of water-related projects from microbial fate and transport studies to human volunteer studies to determine aluminum bioavailability in drinking water.