Dr Andrea Garduno Jimenez

Profile

I am interested in waste valorisation which brings social and environmental benefits.Currently I am working as part of Dr Laura Carter’s team to understand the risks of agricultural biosolid soil amendments in terms of sub-lethal effects of biologically active chemical pollutants on crops and soil biota, as well as actively engaging with farmers as stakeholders in agricultural practices. 

I hold a BEng and PhD in Environmental Engineering from The University of Nottingham. My PhD was centred around wastewater reuse for agricultural irrigation. I focused on analytical method development for targeted and untargeted quantification and identification of bioactive chemical pollutants (e.g., antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, and hormones) in the aquatic environment, both in Mexico and the UK. I also studied the removal of bioactive chemical pollutants using conventional wastewater treatment processes and novel treatment technologies. Aiming to reduce laboratory and field time and costs I did machine learning meta-analysis to evaluate the environmental relevance of pharmaceutical batch soil sorption studies.

I am very interested in international collaborations and I was part of an interdisciplinary project between India and the UK working on enzymatic removal of sulfamethoxazole and acetaminophen. I also lead a year-long collaboration between Mexico and the UK, where we did work on soil-water partitioning of the opiate tramadol, and method development to monitor COVID-19 related pharmaceuticals in Mexico City.

Research interests

Waste valorisation, in particular soil amendments and wastewater reuse for agriculture.

Environmental fate of pollutants

Effects of biologically active chemical pollutants in the agricultural ecosystem 

Analytical method development (targeted, untargeted LC-MS/MS analysis, metabolomics, proteomics)