Sarah Purnell

My main research interests focus upon the design, development and application of tools that can identify and help manage aquatic environments impacted by a range of existing and emerging contaminants. These contaminants have the potential to negatively impact human health and the ecological and chemical quality of aquatic environments. It is important to me that I pursue research that is practical and can feed directly into catchment management undertaken by water quality managers. As such, a large proportion of my research is in collaboration with water industry partners. I have given examples of research projects i have undertaken under the following main topic areas:

Bacteriophage application to water quality issues

Quantitative microbial risk assessment

River catchment scale predictive water quality modelling

Pollution incident analysis

Contaminant source apportionment

Microbial source tracking