About: Emily Forbes is Co-Team Leader of the Environmental Pollution Team at the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). She has a research background in ecology and environmental science, with a PhD and postdoctoral research focused on targeting applications of pesticides to patches of slugs to reduce the environmental impact whilst maintaining effective control. Her current work focuses on understanding the impacts of chemical pollution on nature across the UK, using systems approaches to explore complex environmental challenges. Bringing together data brings across chemicals, biodiversity, climate change and wider environmental pressures to understand the complexities and support policy development and decision-making across the UK. Emily works at the science-policy interface, providing evidence and advice to support decision-making on pollution, biodiversity conservation and nature recovery.

Most pressing issues: The greatest pollution challenge is not one pollutant - it’s our inability to prevent harmful substances from entering the environment at a planetary scale. Linked significantly to this question is one of Pollution inequality in that the poorest communities often experience very different levels of exposure despite contributing very differently to pollution. So, the bigger challenge is “How do we redesign civilization so that economic activity no longer depends on continuously dumping unwanted substances into the air, water, and soil?” In that sense, the ultimate pollution challenge is building a genuinely circular, non-toxic economy that can operate at global scale without degrading the systems that sustain life.  

Top tip for new researchers: One consideration I'd give every student is “If your project succeeded completely, what would be different in the world five years from now - and how would you prove that it worked; i.e. how to identify a fundamental bottleneck where new knowledge could change how pollution is prevented, measured, or governed. Put another way “What is the one important thing about pollution that humanity currently cannot explain, measure, predict, or control - and what would become possible if your PhD solved it?” Key though is to have fun, remembering that a PhD is 99% determination and hard work and 1% inspiration. 

About: Sarah works in Croda’s Corporate Development team, supporting external collaborations and partnerships. These include academic partnerships and university spinouts, and industry bodies and associations. Part of her role is focussed specifically on Net Zero – looking at how our internal R&D and external partnerships can be positioned for sustainable innovation. 

Most Pressing Issue: Renewable feedstocks and end of life management are the two biggest issues for chemicals. Chemicals are unique in that they require carbon atoms for their function. Getting this carbon from renewable resources and ensuring it can be recycled back into the biosphere at end of life is essential for the sustainability of chemicals.   

Top Tip for New Researchers: Focus on what you enjoy and are passionate about – it is much easier to motivate yourself to work on those challenging projects when you care about the bigger picture. 

About: Lydia is a Research Associate in environmental science at the University of the Highlands and Islands. Her research focuses primarily on the environmental occurrence, fate and risks of pharmaceuticals in the water environment, and more recently sustainable healthcare practices. Since completing my PhD, she has coordinated and delivered partnership activity investigating sustainable healthcare practices to reduce pharmaceutical pollution with the One Health Breakthrough Partnership – working with researchers, government representatives and public agencies across the healthcare, water and environment sectors in Scotland.  

Most pressing issue: Addressing chemicals in the environment requires collaborative working across sectors and disciplines. We are getting better at working together – but there is a need to develop robust, transparent and accessible methods to share data so it can be interpreted with confidence and used to inform action by a range of stakeholders across the chemicals life cycle.  

Top Tip for New Researchers: Be curious and open to collaboration and partnership working. There is huge value in engaging with those with different backgrounds and expertise – we need to work together and break down silos. 

About: Festus is an Environmental Social Scientist based at UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. His research focuses on advancing better understanding of the interdependence and synergies between human, animal and ecosystem health with a view of improving policy outcomes for safeguarding livelihoods, health and well-being. Through this interdisciplinary engagement, Festus’ research revolves around three key inter-linked foci: agriculture, health and environment with climate change as an underlying cross-cutting theme particularly in developing contexts. Under these three broad themes, Festus specifically focuses on land tenure systems and sustainable resource management, political ecology of endemic and emerging zoonotic diseases within a ‘One Health’ paradigm and climate change adaptation.

Most pressing issues: The challenge of chemical pollution across scale (local/national/regional/global) may partly be attributable to the limited awareness and/or understanding of the overall scale of risk posed by chemical usage, dispersal and disposal across different sub-populations.  

Top tip for new researchers: I would recommend forging strong cross-sector collaborations with other professionals (outside of one’s discipline/area of expertise) to be impactful.

About: Harry is a doctoral student at the University of Sheffield undertaking an ECORISC PhD researching chemical-climate interactions and the impacts on marine fish communities. In partnership with CEFAS this project considers interactions between climate change and chemical pollution on marine fish. Using the data-rich North Sea as a case study this research capitalises on the on the increasing availability of biological, chemical, and climate data produced by national and European initiatives. The research focuses on exploring climate induced changes on the vulnerability of marine fish communities to anthropogenic pollutants for the wider marine food web, ecosystem functions and services.  

Harry undertook a 3-month placement at the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) as part of his PhD. During this time, he supported a range of projects, including the UK Air Pollution Assessment Service (UKAPAS), helping to introduce marine data particularly into the “state of the environment indicator” for the System Level Indicator and developing a timeline of key chemical policies to support the work of the Inter-Agency Chemicals Group.

About: Susan Zappala is an environmental chemist at JNCC, the UK's statutory adviser on nature conservation. Drawing on over 20 years of experience gained across consultancy, industry and government, she specialises in translating environmental science into practical solutions for nature recovery. Susan leads JNCC's air pollution and chemicals portfolio, working with governments, regulators, researchers and conservation organisations to understand and address pollution pressures on nature. Her work spans evidence generation, policy development and implementation, helping to ensure that scientific knowledge leads to real-world environmental outcomes. Through research training programmes such as ECOSOLUTIONS, she supports stronger connections between research, policy and practice.

Most pressing issues: From a policy viewpoint, using the best available evidence on chemicals to make decisions, even in light of imperfect evidence is hard but necessary. They’re balancing interests across the chemical life cycle and within a changing climate of the planet as well as politics.   

Top tip for new researchers: It’s a broad field with a range of sector avenues you could choose from, so it’s worth being open to different career paths to build your experience, skillset and professional network. Whether you’re interested in policy, research and academia, consultancy or other routes, it’s helpful to gain an understanding of how each industry interacts and influences the state of the environment.     

About: Natasha Brown is an Environmental Pollution Adviser at the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), where she manages and supports projects addressing critical environmental pollution challenges. Her recent work has focused on improving the assessment of air pollution impacts on nitrogen-sensitive habitats across the UK and her international work has featured environmental programmes in South Africa, including initiatives on wastewater pollution, solid waste management, water resource protection and urban resilience, as well as contributing to international policy development on chemicals, waste and pollution. Her work recognises the interconnected nature of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, and the need for integrated, science-based solutions into policy that protect both people and nature. 

Most pressing issues: The sheer scale and complexity of chemical pollution entering the environment. It's a challenge cutting across many sectors, including freshwater and marine quality, agriculture, human health, biodiversity loss, waste management and wastewater treatment, with many sources and types of chemicals to address.  To effectively assess and manage chemicals we need strong national and international collaboration across each industry.  

Top tip for new researchers: It’s a broad field with a range of sector avenues you could choose from, so it’s worth being open to different career paths to build your experience, skillset and professional network. Whether you’re interested in policy, research and academia, consultancy or other routes, it’s helpful to gain an understanding of how each industry interacts and influences the state of the environment.