Dr Katrina Charles
About
Dr Charles' research focuses on environmental health risks, using interdisciplinary approaches to analyse how we construct our understanding of environmental health risks, and how to communicate those risks to affect change. With her research team, which includes expertise in water quality, health and social sciences, and through partnerships with UNICEF and governments, she is leading work on drinking water quality and climate resilience that will help progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal for safe drinking water quality for all (SDG 6.1).
Her work has been funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), World Health Organization, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and includes work in Bangladesh, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Rwanda, and Uganda. Dr Charles undertook her PhD on a risk-based approach to management of decentralised wastewater treatment systems in Sydney's drinking water catchments in Australia. She joined the University of Oxford in 2013 having previously been a lecturer at the University of Surrey.
Expertise
- Water security in Africa and South Asia
- Drinking water quality and the Sustainable Development Goals. Improving monitoring of drinking water quality in low- and middle-income countries, and use of data to create improvements in drinking water quality.
- Working with scientists, policy makers, and practitioners in Africa and Asia
- Climate’s contribution to water quality and health risks. The impact of weather and climate change on water and sanitation systems
- Working with scientists and policy makers, as well as practitioners to build climate resilience
Selected publications
- The utility of Escherichia coli as a contamination indicator for rural drinking water: Evidence from whole genome sequencing. PLoS ONE, 16(1). 23pp. e0245910. Nowicki, S., deLaurent, Z.R., de Villiers, E.P., Githinji, G. and Charles, K.J. (2021)
- A framework for monitoring the safety of water services: from measurements to security. Npj Clean Water, 3(1), 36, 6pp. Charles, K. J., Nowicki, S., & Bartram, J. K. (2020)
- Including water quality monitoring in rural water services: why safe water requires challenging the quantity versus quality dichotomy. Npj Clean Water, 3(14), 9pp. Nowicki, S., Koehler, J., & Charles, K. J. (2020)
- Water insecurity compounds the global coronavirus crisis. Water International, 45:5, 416-422. Staddon, C., Everard, M., Mytton, J., Octavianti, T., Powell, W., Quinn, N., Budds, J., J Geere, K Meehan, K Charles, EGJ Stevenson, J Vonk, J Mizniak (2020)
- Tryptophan-like fluorescence as a measure of microbial contamination risk in groundwater. Science of the Total Environment, 646, 782-791. Nowicki, S., Lapworth, D. J., Ward, J. S. T., Thomson, P., & Charles, K. (2019)
- "Commentary on community-led total sanitation and human rights: should the right to community-wide health be won at the cost of individual rights?" Journal of Water and Health 10(4): 499. Bartram, J., K. Charles, B. Evans, L. O'Hanlon and S. Pedley (2012)
- “Securing 2020 vision for 2030: climate change and ensuring resilience in water and sanitation services”. Journal of Water and Climate Change Vol 1 No 1 pp 2-16. Howard, G., K. Charles, K. Pond, A. Brookshaw, R. Hossain and J. Bartram (2010)
- "Assessment of the stability of human viruses and coliphage in groundwater by PCR and infectivity methods." Journal of Applied Microbiology 106(6): 1827-37. Charles, K. J., Shore, J., Sellwood, J., Laverick, M., Hart, A. and Pedley, S. (2009)
Media experience
Media experience includes recent coverage in The Telegraph.
British Science Association Media Fellowship, 2008, including media training and six weeks as writer with Nature News.
Currently commissioning PR firm TB Cardew and will receive one-on-one media training.
Recent media work
Languages
English