About: As an environmental chemist by training, Zhanyun Wang's research primarily focuses on understanding the life cycles and risks of various anthropogenic chemicals in both the technosphere and the natural environment. He is also deeply interested in exploring innovative and practical approaches to improving the sound management of chemicals and waste. This includes strengthening the science-policy interface and supporting the societal transition toward a safe and sustainable circular economy.

Most pressing issue: One of the most pressing issues concerning chemicals in the environment is the lack of comprehensive understanding of the scale of the problem. This uncertainty is often used as a justification for inaction. However, the absence of evidence of harm should not be mistaken for evidence of no harm. In fact, we already know enough to justify and implement meaningful action.

Top tip for new researchers: Environmental science is a complex and interdisciplinary field, requiring comprehensive thinking from multiple perspectives. Stay perseverant and remain curious—always seeking to connect ideas across different domains.

About: John is an environmental and analytical chemist who researches contamination (both chemical and microbial) of aquatic environments. This involves analysis of samples for both quantification and screening of chemicals as well as assessment of the potential effects they may have on exposed organisms. Increasingly, his work involves citizen science and the development of new tools to study the problem.

Most pressing issue: Most hazard and risk assessment of chemicals in the environment happens using toxicity or Antimicrobial resistance selection data for single chemicals. However, chemicals never exist in nature as single compounds but rather as mixtures of many different types (e.g., organics, metals, nutrients, etc.). This complicates hazard and risk assessment as chemicals can act together to change their joint toxicity profile (e.g., synergistic action). We don’t yet really understand this, which is a very important gap to research. 

Top tip for new researchers: Read, read, read then read some more. Being an effective environmental scientist requires an extremely well rounded understanding of both the natural environment (e.g., geography, biology, chemistry, etc.) and human interactions with it (e.g., environmental economics, environmental justice, climate change, current events, etc.). The only way to gain this is to keep reading and pay attention to any and all environmental stories you come across. 

About: Simon helps member Trusts across the Rivers Trust movement to make best use of monitoring technologies. This can be anything from helping set up Citizen Science and volunteer monitoring programmes looking at water quality through to working on innovation projects with technology providers and universities to help fill gaps in our monitoring capabilities.

Most pressing issue: Chemicals and complex chemical mixtures are pretty much ubiquitous across the globe now and yet we have relatively poor understanding of what the impacts will be on our health – except for the fact that no-one is expecting it to be good. The systems we have in place for food production, waste management, transport and pretty much everything we do rely heavily on ‘chemicals’ and we don’t really have a grasp of how to manage their entire lifecycle.

Top tip for new researchers: Try and stay connected to the natural world as much as you can - keep in touch with the precious things we are trying to protect. In doing so you will hopefully meet other people with a passion for nature and they will help guide you so that you keep sight of the necessity to bring about positive change. There is a lot of negative information out there about our rivers and seas – but they are still amazing, vibrant and beautiful places full of life.

About: Drew is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of York. He specialises in liquid chromatography, high-resolution mass spectrometry and non-targeted screening for the detection, identification and prioritisation of small molecules from environmental samples. His current work aims to develop a machine learning algorithm to predict bioconcentration factors from HRMS data.

Most pressing issue: Data scarcity is one of the biggest issues facing environmental chemistry at the moment. There are a few causes for the lack of high quality ecotoxicological measurements, such as the rate of new chemicals being produced and released in the environment, and the economical and human cost associated with the current in vivo methods that test one chemical at a time. Current efforts to develop high throughput in vitro tests are showing promising results, but can be challenging to form a census with existing methodologies.

Top tip for new researchers: All emerging scientists should seek out networks of peers that can help and motivate you at any stage of your career. SETAC and the RSC have great programs for students and early career researchers, with opportunities for funding to attend conferences. Nominate yourself to join the council and become a leader early in your career.