Projects per year
Personal profile
Scholarly biography
I am an Environmental Microbiologist interested in the role of water in the spread and control of water-related diseases. I'm particularly interested in how we can protect human health and aquatic environments. My teaching and research focuses on three main areas:
- the monitoring and provision of safe water and sanitation in low-resource settings;
- the behaviour of microbiological and chemical contaminants (e.g. viruses (especially phages), bacteria, pesticides and microplastics) in engineered and natural environments; and
- the development and application of low-cost methods for assessing water quality and treatment efficacy.
My teaching draws heavily on current and recent research projects investigating water and sanitation in low-resource settings. This has included Malawi (UNICEF), India (Gates Foundation and GCRF), Nepal (GCRF), Bangladesh (ELRHA) and Brazil (Santander, British Council, Newton Fund).
Approach to teaching
My teaching is underpinned by contemporary case material drawn from my personal experience of international collaborative research in the field of water and sanitation. Modules taught include ‘Water, Sanitation and Health’, ‘Soil and Water’, ‘Global Environmental Challenges’, ‘overseas Fieldwork’, ‘Field Skills for Research and Careers’, along with supervision of Undergraduate and Master’s level dissertations.
Much of my teaching also involves a fieldwork component to help my students contextualise the subject matter and a laboratory component to ensure that they have a sound grasp of methods used for water quality monitoring. Students who take these modules come from a variety of disciplines including Environmental Science, Geography, Biology, Chemistry, Ecology, Civil Engineers and Geology. Getting students with different, often complementary skills sets to work together across disciplines is useful preparation for the work-based challenges that await them beyond the University.
Research interests
My research career to date has focused on the development of innovative low-cost tools that tackle pressing global disease problems. In Malawi, I worked on a UNICEF-funded project 'Assessment of Drinking Water Quality for Low-Cost Water Technology Options in Rural Areas' which led to the re-design and improved management of rural wells, providing low-income communities with safer drinking water. More recently, I was involved in a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded project in India 'SaniPath Typhoid' which sought to enhance understanding of typhoid transmission pathways in Kolkata’s megaslums.
In Europe, new methods developed during an EU Interreg-funded project 'RISKMANCHE' have helped identify human faecal contamination of rivers and established viral removal rates in a full-scale wastewater reuse systems (Thames Water). This information is helping water companies and environmental agencies to meet international standards and more effectively protect public health, by detecting, or interrupting the transmission routes of human waterborne diseases.
Knowledge exchange
My research involves working closeIy with a range of non-academic partners including local charities such as the Ouse and Adur Rivers Trust, international Non-Governmental Organisations such as UNICEF, MSF, and WaterAid and with the UK water industry (Southern, South East and Thames Water).
Supervisory Interests
To date I have overseen the supervision, career development and successful completion of 12 doctoral students from the UK, Italy, Portugal, Cameroon, Nigeria, Brazil and India. These PhD's have covered a range of topics such as 'Bacteriophages as Surrogates of Viral Pathogens in Wastewater Treatment Systems (Dias 2016)', Ecological Characteristics of the Enterococcal Surface Protein (esp) gene with reference to microbial source tracking (Yaliwal 2014); Low-cost physico-chemical disinfection of human excreta in emergency settings (Sozzi 2015); Bacteriophages as Indicators of Human Enteric Viruses in Mussels (Da Silva 2013); and UV Radiation Response of Bacteriophages of Human-specific Bacteroides (Diston, 2010) .
I am currently supervising a water industry-funded PhD student who is using cutting-edge source apportionment approaches to investigate drivers of pollution in Chichester, Langstone and Pagham harbours (S. England) and have just finished supervising a PhD on Pollution, plastics and plumes; understanding the behaviour of microplastics in aquatic sediments of the R. Thames catchment.
I'm keen to supervise postgraduate research (MRes/MPhil/PhDs) in the following areas: development and application of low-cost and/or rapid water quality monitoring tools; behaviour of micro-contaminants (particularly viruses) within the environment and impacts on human health; understanding environmental interactions of emerging contaminants; water and sanitation within low-income and/or emergency settings.
According to French Physiologist Claude Bernard - "The science of life is a superb and dazzlingly lighted hall which may be reached only by passing through a long and ghastly kitchen." Anyone who has undertaken a doctoral degree is likely to agree with this analogy (at least at some point during their journey). As a PhD supervisor, I see my role as someone who can potentially make the kitchen a little less ghastly, or the journey slightly less arduous. I strive to provide a highly connected, supportive, nurturing international research environment with the Environment and Public Health Research and Enterprise Group.
I am currently supervising a further 3 PhD candidates. My PhD students have originated from an equally diverse range of disciplines including Fisheries Engineering, Environmental Science, Biology, Biomolecular Science, Microbiology, Ecology, Environmental Management, Mathematics and have worked for NGO’s in Haiti (MSF), on Gates Foundation-funded research in India, on US AID-funded research into safe excreta disposal in emergencies (Cholera and Ebola treatment centres), led MRC-funded projects in Kenya, founded research groups in Brazil, and managed prestigious research laboratories in the US.
All have gone on to forge careers within the burgeoning field of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and or microbiology, either via academia, or industry. The sustained success of our thriving research group stems from a blend of enthusiasm for the wider subject area and from a long-held desire to break down barriers, to ensure that epidemiologists mix with engineers, and microbiologists work with modellers. This has been achieved by exchanging PhD students (and Early Career Researchers) with trusted and established international project collaborators within the public, private and voluntary sectors.
I also maintain a rolling programme of group activities, training initiatives and social events for new arrivals into the group, which is increasingly populated by previous PhD students who are even better placed to support the career aspirations of our current and future Doctoral students. With unsafe water supply and sanitation responsible for an estimated 842,000 deaths per year, the WASH sector continues to face significant challenges, which are only likely to be met through interdisciplinary, cross-border collaboration by a new generation of WASH-focussed researchers, capable of confidently sharing ideas across a range scientific domains and via an increasingly complex network of stakeholders and end-users. I hope that as my students continue to emerge into the ‘dazzlingly lighted hall’ they are as well-rounded and well-placed as possible to meet this challenge.
Education/Academic qualification
PhD, Identification of sources of faecal pollution in surface waters using a novel antibiotic resistance profiling technique, University of Brighton
Award Date: 1 Jun 2006
Master, MSc Environmental Change: Social and Environmental Aspects, Brunel University London
Award Date: 1 Nov 2000
External positions
Member of One Health Advisory Group
10 Jun 2024 → 10 Jun 2027
External Examiner MSc in Water, Sanitation and Health and MSc in Environmental Engineering and Project Management, University of Leeds
1 Nov 2021 → 31 Oct 2025
Trustee, Ouse and Adur Rivers Trust (OART)
31 Jan 2015 → …
Keywords
- TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
- Sanitation
- Environment
- Microbes
- Behaviour
- Risk
- Public health
- Water
- Q Science (General)
Fingerprint
- 1 Similar Profiles
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 12 Finished
-
SMaRT: Safer Management and Reliable Treatment (SMaRT) of faecal sludge in emergencies
Ebdon, J. (PI) & Gomes Da Silva, D. (CoI)
1/02/23 → 31/08/24
Project: Charities
File -
Towards brown gold: Safe and sustainable sanitation in the small towns of Asia and Africa
Mehta, L. (PI), Ebdon, J. (CoI), Fox, A. (CoI), Gomes Da Silva, D. (CoI) & Macpherson, H. (CoI)
1/04/20 → 30/09/24
Project: Research Councils / Government Depts.
-
Water Reuse Applications for Southern Water Phase II
Ebdon, J. (PI) & Mayor-Smith, I. (CoI)
1/05/19 → 30/06/20
Project: Grant
-
Sanipath Typhoid
Ebdon, J. (PI) & Purnell, S. (CoI)
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
1/02/17 → 31/08/19
Project: Grant
-
South East Water: Microbial source tracking
Purnell, S. (PI), Ebdon, J. (CoI), Ives, K. (CoI) & Lohrey, S. (CoI)
1/09/16 → 31/08/17
Project: Research
-
Spatio-temporal trends in microplastic presence in the sediments of the River Thames catchment (UK)
Skalska, K., Ockelford, A., Ebdon, J., Cundy, A. & Horton, A. A., 4 Sept 2024, In: Marine Pollution Bulletin. 207, 12 p., 116881.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
A Longitudinal Study of Bacteriophages as Indicators of Norovirus Contamination of Mussels (Mytilus edulis) and Their Overlying Waters
Trajano Gomes da Silva, D., Ebdon, J., Taylor, H., Baker-Austin, C. & Dancer, D., 1 Mar 2022, In: Pollutants . 2, 1, p. 66-81 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Microbiological impact of diffuse pollution sources on water quality
Leifels, M., Sirikanchana, K. & Ebdon, J., 15 May 2022, Land Use and Water Quality: the Impacts of Diffuse Pollution. Kajitvichyanukul, P. & D'Arcy, B. (eds.). London: IWA Publishing, p. 73-82 10 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceeding with ISSN or ISBN › Chapter › peer-review
-
Elucidation of fecal inputs into the River Tagus catchment (Portugal) using source-specific mitochondrial DNA, HAdV, and phage markers
Monteiro, S., Ebdon, J., Santos, R. & Taylor, H., 14 Apr 2021, In: Science of the Total Environment. 783, p. 1-10 10 p., 147086 .Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Evaluation of low-cost phage-based Microbial Source Tracking tools for elucidating human fecal contamination pathways in Kolkata, India
Kapoor, R., Ebdon, J., Wadhwa, A., Chowdhury, G., Wang, Y., Raj, S. J., Siesel, C., Durry, S. E., Mairinger, W., Mukhopadhyay, A. K., Kanungo, S., Dutta, S. & Moe, C. L., 20 May 2021, In: Frontiers in Microbiology. 12, p. 1-14 14 p., 673604.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile
Activities
-
‘Barriers to the therapeutic use of bacteriophages in the UK’
Ebdon, J. (Presenter)
19 Oct 2022Activity: External talk or presentation › Oral presentation
-
Protecting and connecting the unconnected in rapidly urbanizing settlements: towards a safe circular water economy in Nepal.
Gomes Da Silva, D. (Presenter), Ebdon, J. (Presenter), Tripathi, P. S. T. (Presenter), Pokhrel, P. (Presenter) & Raj Pathak, D. D. (Presenter)
28 Mar 2022Activity: External talk or presentation › Oral presentation
-
Invited keynote speaker, member of the scientific conference committee and session chair
Ebdon, J. (Keynote speaker)
19 Nov 2019Activity: External talk or presentation › Oral presentation
-
Referee for proposals to Engineering for Development (E4D) Switzerland
Ebdon, J. (Member of expert group)
12 Feb 2019Activity: External funding peer-review
-
Programme Committee Member of the 20th International Water Association Symposium on Health Related Water Microbiology (Event)
Ebdon, J. (Member)
1 Jan 2019 → 19 Sept 2019Activity: External boards and professional/academic bodies › Membership of professional body