Research Interests
There are two critical strands of my research portfolio. The first is to further understanding of behavioural traits of pollutants in the soil-water continuum and advance process understanding in environmental and agricultural systems. The second is to use this knowledge to solve real world issues through applied research and knowledge exchange. To maximise the potential of these two research strands I operate within interdisciplinary research teams, with both social and natural scientists and the research and policy communities. My research interests can be defined within the following three key research themes:
Environment, Pollution and Human Health: Understanding the fate and transfer of microbial pollutants and emerging pathogens warrants significant attention and is highly topical both within research council agendas and policy arenas.
Integrated Catchment Management: Interdisciplinary frameworks that recognise the importance of integrating science and social science, multiple-pollutants and multiple-stakeholders represent an important shift for more rewarding catchment scale studies.
Diffuse Pollution Risk Assessment and Modelling: The development of decision support tools and models for different stakeholder and end-users is paramount and offers potential to overlap and complement the previous two research themes
Present: Senior Lecturer in Catchment Science, University of Stirling
PhD University of Sheffield (in collaboration with Institute of Grassland & Environmental Research) 2005
The transmissive critical zone: understanding the karst hydrology-biogeochemical interface for sustainable management <NERC-NSFC, RMB, PI Susan Waldron, University of Glasgow>, January 2016 – December 2018
Hydroscape: connectivity x stressor interactions in freshwater habitats <NERC, PI Nigel Willby>, December 2015 – November 2019
AquaFly – Insects as natural feed ingredients for sustainable salmon farming <research council of norway; pi bente torstensen, nifes, norway>, September 2014 – September 2017
Cho KH, Pachepsky YA, Oliver DM, Muirhead RW, Park Y, Quilliam RS & Shelton D (2016). Modeling fate and transport of fecally-derived microorganisms at the watershed scale: state of the science and future opportunities, Water Research, 100, 38-56.
Keswani A, Oliver DM, Gutierrez T & Quilliam RS (2016). Microbial hitchhikers on marine plastic debris: human exposure risks at bathing waters and beach environments. Marine Environmental Research, 118, 10-19.
Oliver DM, Porter KDH, Pachepsky YA, Muirhead RW, Reaney SM, Coffey R, Kay D, Milledge DG, Hong E, Anthony SG, Page T, Bloodworth JW, Mellander P-E, Carbonneau PE, McGrane SJ & Quilliam RS (2016). Predicting microbial water quality with models: over-arching questions for managing risk in agricultural catchments, Science of the Total Environment, 544, 39-47.
Oliver DM, Hanley ND, van Niekerk M, Kay D, Heathwaite AL, Rabinovici SJM, Kinzelman JL, Fleming LE, Porter J, Shaikh S, Fish R, Chilton S, Hewitt J, Connolly E, Cummins A, Glenk K, McPhail C, McRory E, McVittie A, Giles A, Roberts S, Simpson K, Tinch D, Thairs T, Avery LM, Vinten AJA, Watts B & Quilliam RS (2016). Molecular tools for bathing water assessment in Europe: balancing social science research with a rapidly developing environmental science evidence-base, AMBIO, 45, 52-62.
Quilliam RS, Kinzelman J, Brunner J & Oliver DM (2015). Resolving conflicts in public health protection and ecosystem service provision at designated bathing waters, Journal of Environmental Management, 161, 237-242.
