John Nightingale

Profile

John is an environmental scientist with a specific interest in the fate & effects of emerging contaminants in agri-ecosystems. Specifically his background includes the environmental fate of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals within both terrestrial and aquatic compartments.

John is a PhD candidate from the University of Leeds in partnership with the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA Science Ltd, CCSS), his studies were heavily focussed towards the the fate of contaminants in environmental matrices with a large focus towards the environmental risk assessment for veterinary and human pharmaceuticals. His experimental focus was heterogenic manure properties and their influence on our understanding of the risk of veterinary medicines within the environment. 

John is now a post doctorate researcher situated at the University of Leeds, he currently is working alongside Professor Laura Carter to explore the fate & effects of human pharmaceuticals in the environment. 

He is currently interested and most involved in using non target screening techniques in tandem with predictive approaches to help prioritise chemicals of concern in the environment. Some of this work included the development of a modelling framework to predict the uptake of human pharmaceuticals into crops receiving treated wastewater for irrigation purposes. He was awarded a grant by the British Council to facilitate an international collaboration between Israel and Leeds aimed at monitoring ‘lesser known’ human pharmaceuticals present in Agri-ecosystems receiving treated wastewater (targeted and untargeted). Additionally, John is a member of the Carter research groups monitoring programme known as SPADE (SPADE – Soil Pollution Assessment Delivery | School of Geography | University of Leeds), which assess contaminants of concern in UK arable soils. His research interests also include other side projects that explore the fate and effects of human pharmaceuticals in the environment, some of these include working on phytoremediation efforts using lemna gibba, exploring the influence of contaminants on soil respiration, and evaluating the uptake of ‘lesser known’ human pharmaceuticals and pesticides into oilseed rape. 

Responsibilities

• Post doctoral research in the fate and effects of pharmaceuticals
• Lead scientific project coordinator

Research interests

My most prominant research interests include:

Environmental Fate – To evaluate the risk of emerging contaminants in the environment we look into their persistence (degradation), mobility (leaching), and uptake into edible produces. 

Predictive tools – To aid us in identifying chemicals of concern we require the use of modelling techniques to identify chemicals of concern, specifically I am interested in the most up to date, sorption models, plant uptake models, leaching models, and developing predictive tools to predict the fate of pharmaceuticals in soils that have arisen from wastewater practices. 

Analytical chemistry – Analytical tools are essential to quantifying and identfying chemicals of concern within environmental matrices. LCMS and HRMS methodologies have been extensively utilzied thorughout his research.

Qualifications

• PhD Geography (University of Leeds)
• MSc Environmental Science by Research (Keele University)
• BSc Environmental Science (Keele University)

Professional memberships

• BSSS
• SETAC