Guest Speakers

Professor Tim Softly: Pro-Vice Chancellor

Tim Softley is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Transfer.  As such his responsibilities are to lead the University’s research performance with the aim of positioning the University firmly amongst the leading research universities in the UK. He takes the lead role on preparing and the delivery of actions to enhance Birmingham’s position in the next REF, and on working to improve the University’s grant capture, including research funding from business and industry. As a member of the University Executive Board and the Strategic Planning and Resources Committee, he contributes to the broader leadership and direction of the University, and supports the Provost in academic planning matters including the annual planning and target-setting cycle.  In the area of Knowledge Transfer, he is a Nominated Officer on the Alta Innovations Board, and represents the University on the Birmingham Science City Board and the Midlands Innovation PVC Board. He works with the Graduate School and the Director of Graduate Studies to enhance the graduate research student experience and to facilitate recruitment of high quality graduate students.  He is Chair of the Research Committee, the Knowledge Transfer Committee, the Research Ethics Integrity and Governance Committee, and the Academic IT Resources Group.

Professor Stefan Krause: Chair of Ecohydrology & Biogeochemistry, Head of the Birmingham Water Council

Stefan Krause is Professor of Ecohydrology and Biogeochemistry in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences. His interdisciplinary research group on coupled groundwater and surface water systems investigates the impacts of global environmental change on hydrological fluxes, biogeochemical cycling and contaminant transport, and ecohydrological feedback functions in complex landscapes. His work particularly focuses on the analysis and quantification of multi-component reactive transport processes at aquifer-river interfaces and how these are influenced by changes in land-use and climate.

The research of his group combines novel modelling techniques with the development of innovative experimental technologies for investigating the interlinked cycling of nutrients and reactive transport of legacy (chlorinated solvents) and emerging contaminants such as engineered nanoparticles, microplastics and pharmaceuticals. He is applying novel distributed sensor network technology together with reactive “smart tracers” for investigating interconnected nitrogen and carbon cycling and microbial metabolic activity in reactive “hot-spots” and “hot-moments” at aquifer-river interfaces. His group provides expertise in developing adaptive modelling strategies for coupled simulation of groundwater and surface water flow at catchments scale which are applied for analysing the implications of environmental change on water transport and nutrient conditions in groundwater and surface waters.

In addition to reactive transport and transformation in coupled groundwater-surface water systems, Prof. Krause’s research interests extend to the ecohydrological implications of nutrient cycling and contaminant transport at aquifer-river interfaces as well as the development of management strategies and political instruments to promote the attenuation potential in these systems.

Professor David Hannah: Director of Research and UNESCO Chair in Water Science    

David M. Hannah is Professor of Hydrology in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences and Director of Research of the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham. He is Chair-holder for the UNESCO Chair in Water Sciences. 

He is recognised internationally for his pioneering work linking hydrology with climatology and ecology. He was honoured with the prestigious Tison Award (2014) from the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS).  David’s research is interdisciplinary, focusing particularly on 3 complementary themes within hydroclimatology (interface between hydrology-climatology): (1) hydroclimatological processes within alpine, Arctic, mountain and glacierized river basins; (2) climate and river flow regimes; and (3) river energy budget and thermal dynamics. He has a crosscutting interest in ecohydrology/ hydroecology, specifically ecological response to hydro-climatological and physico-chemical habitat variability/ change.  

David has made technological innovations in environmental sensing and helped shape the emerging citizen science agenda around water resources. His research has significant blue skies and applied implications for understanding and responding to impacts of climate change/ variability on hydrological systems and riverine ecology, and the management/ conservation of freshwaters. 

David is very active in UNESCO’s International Hydrology Programme, formerly UK Representative for the International Association of Hydrological Sciences, and Vice-President of the IAHS-International Commission for Surface Water. Beyond academia, he provides advice to Government, various agencies, water industry and regulators.

Professor Jeff McDonnell: Global Institute for Water Security, University of Saskatchewan

Jeffrey J. McDonnell was born in Toronto, Canada and has a BSc (Hon) from the University of Toronto, MSc from Trent University and PhD and DSc from the University of Canterbury, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar. He has taught at Utah State University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Oregon State University, where he was Richardson Chair in Watershed Science and University Distinguished Professor. Since 2012, he has been Professor of Hydrology and Associate Director of the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan. Jeff’s work focuses on new ways to measure, understand and model streamflow generation processes. He has co-authored >300 articles on watershed hydrology and co-edited the Elsevier textbook “Isotope Tracers in Catchment Hydrology”. He was the founding Editor of HPToday and sits currently on a dozen journal editorial boards. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Canada’s National Academy of Science), and an elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America and the American Geophysical Union. He is the 2016 winner of the International Hydrology Prize (Dooge Medal) from the International Association of Hydrological, UNESCO and World Meteorological Organization. Previously, he has received the Dalton Medal from the European Geophysical Union and the Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer Award from the Geological Society of America. Jeff is currently President of the AGU Hydrology Section and Visiting Distinguished Professor at Tsinghua University. 

Professor Semira Manaseki-Holland: Institute of Applied Health Research University of Birmingham 

Semira Manaseki-Holland is a senior clinical lecturer in Public Health with an interest in health systems, maternal-child health and low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). She is a UK based Public Health Physician with a paediatric background and has worked in clinical medicine, health systems delivery and policy, public health and research in the UK and LMICs for over 20 years. Her LMIC experience includes research (such as large community trials in challenging academic environments, including the first ever trial in Mongolia and Kabul), work for WHO and UNICEF on country based programmes and at WHO HQ, with Ministries of Health to advise on strategy and policy development, and at the CEO level in an International Health Non-governmental Organisations (INGO) coordinating delivery of integrated health services (in Afghanistan and Tajikistan from village health volunteers to provincial hospitals), and operations of training colleges. In the recent years, she has been involved in developing innovative interventions on complementary-food and water hygiene to reduce diarrhoea in young children to evaluated in a randomised controlled trial in the Gambia working with UNICEF and MOH in the Gambia and SHARE (a DIFD funded WaSH consortium) and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK.

Professor Nigel Cassidy: Professor of Geotechnical Infrastructure Engineering and Head of Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham.  

Nigel Cassidy is Professor of Professor of Geotechnical Infrastructure Engineering and Head of Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham. He has over 30 years’ academic and industrial experience in near-surface geophysics, geotechnical/environmental engineering and numerical modelling. His research focuses on the development of remote monitoring, modelling and inversion techniques to solve practical environmental, hydrological and geo-engineering problems.

Professor Yan Zheng: Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)

Yan Zheng received her PhD degree in marine geochemistry from Columbia University in the City of New York, USA and is currently a chair professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology.  Previous appointments include chair professor at Peking University, executive director of facilities professor and director of School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the City University of New York, Queens College, Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Professor of Public Health at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, as well as a water and sanitation specialist for the United Nations Children's Fund in Bangladesh. She served as principal investigators for many research projects funded by the government of the United States and China. With colleagues and students, she has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles in areas including marine geochemistry, hydrogeology, environmental analytical chemistry, drinking water safety, environmental health, and sustainable development.  She has served or is serving as an Associate or a Guest Editor for Environmental Health Perspective, Journal of Geochemical Exploration, Science of the Total Environment, and Science Bulletin. She was elected as a Fellow of Geological Society of America in 2010. She is also a recipient of China’s One Thousand Talent program in 2014.

Professor Glenn Watts: Deputy Director Research, Environment Agency    

Glenn Watts is Deputy Director for Research at the Environment Agency. He has a degree in Geography from the University of Birmingham. His PhD from the University of Bristol examined soil erosion and hydrology in agricultural terraces in south-east Spain. Glenn worked on water resources, water supply and drought planning before moving to his role in research. He has research interests in the impact of climate change on water and water supply, and led the development of the LWEC water climate impacts report card.

http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/partnerships/ride/lwec/report-cards/