Professor Richard Quilliam

Professor

Biological and Environmental Sciences University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Professor Richard Quilliam

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About me

About me

I am Professor of Environment and Health, with research interests in water quality and sanitation, environmental pathogen ecology, sustainable agriculture & agroecology, and sustainable disease & waste management. My work adopts methods and theories from both the natural & social sciences and employs both qualitative & participatory approaches with a significant level of engagement with local communities.

Brief Biography

2019 – Professor

2016-2019. Senior Lecturer (University of Stirling)

2012-2016. Lecturer (University of Stirling)

2007-2012. Post-doctoral Research Associate (Bangor University)

2006 Ph.D, Plant Physiology & Pathology (University of Sheffield)

2002 BSc. Plant Biology (Bangor University)

Current projects as Principal Investigator

2021-2025: SPACES: Sustainable Plastic Attitudes to benefit Communities and their Environments (£3.85 million; NERC-GCRF)

2021-2022: Using genomic sequencing to identify and characterise genospecies within the Rhizobium leguminosarum complex linked to increased performance and yield of a legume crop (£57k, BBSRC)

2021-2022: Sustainable waste management and Covid-19: an opportunity to build resilience into the livelihoods of informal waste pickers in South Africa (£30k; SFC-GCRF Covid-19 Urgency call)

2019-2023: Microbial hitchhikers of marine plastics: survival, persistence, and ecology of microbial communities in the ‘Plastisphere’ (£1.85 million, NERC) https://plasticvectors.stir.ac.uk/

For more information see: https://rsquilliam.wordpress.com/

Research (6)

Research group

Post-doctoral researchers:

Dr. Ayorinde Akinbobola, “Human health implications of microplastic-associated biofilms” Funding: NERC Plastic Vectors Project (WP2)

Dr Michael Ormsby, "“Environmental Microbiology and the Ecology of Plastic Pollution” Funding NERC-GCRF SPACES Project (WP2)

Dr Luke Woodford, “Human pathogens and plastic pollution in agriculture and food production systems” Funding: GCRF-NERC SPACES Project (WP2)

PhD students:

Rebecca Metcalf, “The survival, persistence and ecology of microbial pathogens on the surfaces of environmental plastic pollution” Funding: University of Stirling

Chloe Pow, “The persistence and transfer of human pathogens associated with plastic pollution in agriculture and food production systems” Funding: University of Stirling

James Mwesiga, "Irrigation and microplastics in peri-urban agronomy in Tanzania"

Research Assistants: Hannah White, “Microplastics and pathogens” Funding: NERC SPACES Project

Rosie Fellows, “Human pathogens in the environment” Funding: GCRF-NERC SPACES Project

For more information: http://rsquilliam.wordpress.com/research 

Projects

Sustainable Plastic Attitudes to benefit Communities and their EnvironmentS
PI: Professor Richard Quilliam
Funded by: Natural Environment Research Council

Sources, impacts and solutions for plastics in South East Asia coastal environments
PI: Dr Sabine Matallana-Surget
Funded by: Natural Environment Research Council

Microbial hitch-hikers of marine plastics: survival, persistence and ecology of microbial communities in the 'Plastisphere'.
PI: Professor Richard Quilliam
Funded by: Natural Environment Research Council

Visualising Pathogen & Environmental Risk: transition to a user-ready toolkit (ViPER II)
PI: Professor David Oliver
Funded by: Natural Environment Research Council

Pathogen Risks in Agricultural Catchments: Towards International Collaboration And Learning in Modelling (PRACTICAL Modelling)
PI: Professor David Oliver
Funded by: Natural Environment Research Council

Recycling Biomass to Agricultural LANd: Capitalizing on Eutrophication
PI: Professor David Oliver
Funded by: Natural Environment Research Council

Outputs (105)

Outputs

Showing 100 of 105 — See all 105 outputs

Article

Oliver DM, McDougall CW, Robertson T, Grant B, Hanley N & Quilliam RS (2023) Self-reported benefits and risks of open water swimming to health, wellbeing and the environment: Cross-sectional evidence from a survey of Scottish swimmers. Meena DK (Editor) PLOS ONE, 18 (8), p. e0290834. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290834


Article

Maluk M, Giles M, Wardell GE, Akramin AT, Ferrando-Molina F, Murdoch A, Barros M, Beukes C, Vasconçelos M, Harrison E, Daniell TJ, Quilliam RS, Iannetta PPM & James EK (2023) Biological nitrogen fixation by soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.), a novel, high protein crop in Scotland, requires inoculation with non-native bradyrhizobia. Frontiers in Agronomy, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fagro.2023.1196873


Article

Lee C, Messer L, Holland S, Gutierrez T, Quilliam R & Matallana-Surget S (2023) The primary molecular influences of marine plastisphere formation and function: Novel insights into organism -organism and -co-pollutant interactions.. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, pp. 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2023.2224182


Article

Boyd Williams N, Quilliam RS, Campbell B, Raha D, Baruah DC, Clarke ML, Sarma R, Haque C, Borah T & Dickie J (2022) Challenging perceptions of socio-cultural rejection of a taboo technology: Narratives of imagined transitions to domestic toilet-linked biogas in India. Energy Research and Social Science, 92, Art. No.: 102802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102802


Article

Metcalf R, White HL, Moresco V, Ormsby MJ, Oliver DM & Quilliam RS (2022) Sewage-associated plastic waste washed up on beaches can act as a reservoir for faecal bacteria, potential human pathogens, and genes for antimicrobial resistance. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 180, Art. No.: 113766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113766


Article

Maluk M, Ferrando-Molina F, Lopez del Egido L, Langarica-Fuentes A, Gebre Yohannes G, Young MW, Martin P, Gantlett R, Kenicer G, Hawes C, Begg GS, Quilliam RS, Squire GR, Young JPW, Iannetta PPM & James EK (2022) Fields with no recent legume cultivation have sufficient nitrogen-fixing rhizobia for crops of faba bean (Vicia faba L.). Plant and Soil, 472 (1-2), pp. 345-368. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-05246-8


Article

Afolabi EO, Quilliam RS & Oliver DM (2020) Impact of Freeze-Thaw Cycles on Die-Off of E. coli and Intestinal Enterococci in Deer and Dairy Faeces: Implications for Landscape Contamination of Watercourses. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17 (19), p. 6999. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17196999


Article

Hill PW, Broughton R, Bougoure J, Havelange W, Newsham KK, Grant H, Murphy DV, Clode P, Ramayah S, Marsden KA, Quilliam RS, Roberts P, Brown C, Read DJ & Deluca TH (2019) Angiosperm symbioses with non-mycorrhizal fungal partners enhance N acquisition from ancient organic matter in a warming maritime Antarctic. Ecology Letters, 22 (12), pp. 2111-2119. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13399


Book Chapter

Fletcher J, Willby NJ, Oliver DM & Quilliam RS (2019) Phytoremediation using Aquatic Plants. In: Shmaefsky B (ed.) Phytoremediation – In-Situ Applications. Concepts and Strategies in Plant Sciences. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030000981


Article

Buckerfield SJ, Waldron S, Quilliam RS, Naylor LA, Li S & Oliver DM (2019) How can we improve understanding of faecal indicator dynamics in karst systems under changing climatic, population, and land use stressors? - Research opportunities in SW China. The Science of the Total Environment, 646, pp. 438-447. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.292


Book Chapter

Sizmur T, Quilliam R, Puga AP, Moreno-Jiminez E, Beesley L & Gomez-Eyles JL (2016) Application of Biochar for Soil Remediation. In: Guo M, He Z & Uchimiya S (eds.) Agricultural and Environmental Applications of Biochar: Advances and Barriers. SSSA Special Publication, 63. Madison, WI, USA: Soil Science Society of America, Inc. pp. 295-324. https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/books/abstracts/sssaspecialpubl/sssaspecpub63/sssaspecpub63.2014.0046.5


Article

Oliver D, Hanley N, Van Niekerk M, Kay D, Heathwaite L, Rabinovici S, Kinzelman J, Fleming L, Porter J, Shaikh S, Fish R, Chilton S, Hewitt J, Connolly E & Quilliam R (2016) Molecular tools for bathing water assessment in Europe: balancing social science research with a rapidly developing environmental science evidence-base. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 45 (1), pp. 52-62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-015-0698-9


Article

Oliver D, Porter K, Pachepsky YA, Muirhead RW, Reaney SM, Coffey R, Kay D, Milledge DG, Hong E, Anthony SG, Page T, Bloodworth JW, Mellander P, Carbonneau PE, McGrane SJ & Quilliam R (2016) Predicting microbial water quality with models: Over-arching questions for managing risk in agricultural catchments. Science of the Total Environment, 544, pp. 39-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.11.086


Article

Oliver D, Van Niekerk M, Kay D, Heathwaite AL, Porter J, Fleming LE, Kinzelman J, Connolly E, Cummins A, McPhail C, Rahman A, Thairs T, de Roda Husman AM, Hanley N, Dunhill I & Quilliam R (2014) Opportunities and limitations of molecular methods for quantifying microbial compliance parameters in EU bathing waters. Environment International, 64, pp. 124-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2013.12.016


Article

Quilliam R, Cross P, Williams AP, Edwards-Jones G, Salmon RL, Rigby D, Chalmers RM, Thomas DR & Jones DL (2013) Subclinical infection and asymptomatic carriage of gastrointestinal zoonoses: Occupational exposure, environmental pathways, and the anonymous spread of disease. Epidemiology and Infection, 141 (10), pp. 2011-2021. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268813001131


Article

Gertler C, Nather DJ, Cappello S, Gerdts G, Quilliam R, Yakimov MM & Golyshin PN (2012) Composition and dynamics of biostimulated indigenous oil-degrading microbial consortia from the Irish, North and Mediterranean Seas: a mesocosm study. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 81 (3), pp. 520-536. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-6941.2012.01377.x


Article

Quilliam R, Williams AP, Avery LM, Malham SK & Jones DL (2011) Unearthing human pathogens at the agricultural-environment interface: A review of current methods for the detection of Escherichia coli O157 in freshwater ecosystems. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 140 (3-4), pp. 354-360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2011.01.019


See all 105 outputs