Melanie graduated with a MSc in Agronomy and Soil Sciences from the University of Nancy (ENSAIA, France), before completing her PhD on the fate of ionisable pesticides in soils at the University of York (UK). She was then recruited by the UK Food and Environmental Research Agency (FERA) where she assessed the exposure and hazard of a wide range of contaminants within projects commissioned by government and industry. In 2009, joined the University of Vienna (Austria) where she developed projects looking at the interactions between contaminants and natural/engineered nanoparticles and was invited as a Distinguished Visiting Scientist for a year at the CSIRO in Adelaide (Australia), before joining the School of Environment of the University of Auckland in 2019.

Satendra is a PhD candidate at the University of Auckland. His research is on the soils of New Zealand determining whether erionite is present. He has a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science from The University of the South Pacific, Fiji Islands, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Science from The Auckland University of Technology.

Michael is a first year MSc student that has been working on the erionite project since July 2022. He graduated with a double major in microbiology and genetics at Massey University. Currently, Michael investigates the microbial life living on erionite using nature-mimicking culturing and culture-independent methods (metagenomics, bioinformatics). Once the study reveals microbes “who” are capable on living on erionite, Michael will investigate microbial potential to degrade erionite fibres.

Ayrton is a part time research fellow on the erionite project. He has a background in hydrothermal systems and will be assisting the PhD students analysing soil and rock samples with lab analysis and fieldwork throughout New Zealand.

Kim completed a BSc degree in Physics and Meteorology at McGill University in Canada before moving to New Zealand to complete both an MSc and PhD in Physics and Environmental Science at the University of Auckland. Her research focusses on the ways in which urban civil infrastructure impact on the health and wellbeing of urban residents, in particular on air pollution and noise from road transport. In air pollution, her work includes the measurement of human exposure using portable sensors, the modelling of air pollution levels in response to changes in local meteorology and transport infrastructure, and the uptake of pollutants in the body through analysis of biomarkers. In the area of noise, her research focusses on the impact of road traffic and community annoyance, as well as the role of urban greenspace in promoting community health and wellbeing.

Charles came to New Zealand from China in 2017, and completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Auckland. In 2021, he completed his Bachelor of Science (Honors) with First Class Honors on Geography, focusing on particulate matter concentration in the indoor environment. Charles is currently a PhD student at the University of Auckland. His PhD thesis focuses on accessing personal exposure to eriontie, from resuspended road dust, in various environments

David McBride is a professor in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Otago University, focusing on occupational epidemiology and military medicine: chemical physical and environmental risk factors. His strong interest in the ‘evidence base’ for practice has led to a research career in Occupational Epidemiology and biostatistics. Trying to put theory into practice by identifying, through ‘dose response’ relationships, harmful levels of occupational exposure. He is also a member of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Committee, Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Grace is a Research Officer at Research Centre for Hauora and Health (formerly the Centre for Public Health Research) at Massey University, with an interest in occupational and environmental health and neurodegenerative disease, and cancer epidemiology. She has been involved with a number of epidemiological studies in the field of occupational exposures and health effects and completed her PhD in occupational epidemiology. Her doctoral thesis was based on the first New Zealand population-based case-control study of occupational, environmental, and lifestyle risk factors for Motor Neurone Disease. Grace is currently involved in a large mixed-methods research programme to develop, implement, and evaluate interventions to reduce occupational exposures and disease in solvent (vehicle collision-repair), silica (construction), and pesticides (agriculture) exposed workers.

Shanon completed a BSc & BCom degree at Otago University before completing a MSc in Environmental Science at the University of Auckland. He completed his PhD at King’s College London, focussing on air pollution exposure in professional drivers. His research focus is on urban air quality with a particular interest in transportation emissions. He is a part-time research fellow on the erionite project, where his role is to investigate ways to identify erionite in the ambient air.

Hamesh is an Air Quality Scientist at Mote Ltd. Hamesh graduated from the University of Auckland with BSc and MSc, continuing his education, working towards a PhD in Environmental Science. He is passionate about collecting high-quality data across various air pollution networks to understand population exposure and associated health effects within an environmental justice framework.

His current research focuses on developing low-cost sensors to better understand fine/ultrafine particulate. Hamesh has deployed, operated and maintained numerous low-cost and regulatory networks, working on various projects across New Zealand, Australia, and the USA. Hamesh works alongside local governments as well as large commercial and research organisations.

Hamesh works closely with the Erionite team to support and deliver cost-effective monitoring solutions that will help identify and quantity erionite and other fibrous minerals in the ambient air.

Anushka’s recent work has been related to tackling the challenges of using low-cost sensors to obtain spatially distributed air quality data sets in cities with the main research publications related to monitoring and modelling of air pollution. Anushka has twenty years of experience as a university teacher and a researcher in Sri Lanka and holds a Bachelor of Engineering, a Master of Philosophy in Engineering from University of Peradeniya Sri Lanka and a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from The University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her main goal in this project is to identify airborne fraction of the mineral fibers in samples collected from different areas and under different exposure conditions by undertaking analytical analysis of samples using scanning electron microscopic techniques.

Katarzyna is currently a Senior Lecturer in Geographic Information Science in the School of Environment at Auckland University. The focus of her GIScience and urban analytics research interests lie in developing spatiotemporal analytics and modelling techniques to study and understand movement. Understanding human movement and its relationship to the urban and natural environment has crucial implications for studying modern global concerns and phenomena such as spread of diseases, traffic intensity, environmental exposure, human mobility and accessibility to services, geoprivacy, natural hazards and migration. Katarzyna’s research will contribute to understanding and solving these problems by advancing the knowledge of human movements and its dynamic relations with the environment.

Kristiann is a senior policy practitioner-turned-researcher, with specialisation in both ‘science for policy’ and ‘policy for science’ processes. Her research interests include science policy processes in small research systems, particularly how policy discourses are created and embedded; as well as agile policy making processes that can better engage with the social and ethical implications of new technologies. She has worked had the intersection of science and public policy in multiple contexts internationally, including provincial, federal and multi-lateral systems. Most recently, she has served as Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor. Prior to this, Kristiann worked within the science policy system in her native Canada. Kristiann is a founding member of INGSA, where she provides strategic direction and undertakes mentorship.

Marc is an environmental geographer interested in understanding how science constructs the environment as an object of policy. His ongoing research areas include collective approaches to environmental governance, the politics of bureaucracies, transdisciplinary knowledge practice, the use of science and mātauranga in freshwater decision making, and environmental values and valuation. In the erionite research programme Marc contributes to the project by looking at how the erionite risk is constructed, understood, and acted upon by different actors involved in environmental governance.

Neil Airey is a risk management and ‘safety systems’ professional who has worked in aviation, in government (MFAT) and at Auckland University. Neil specialises in building systems of safety which integrate with business/organisation operating systems/processes to meet regulatory requirements and deliver on company objectives. Along-with systems/processes, key components including psychological factors (hearts and minds) and human factors. Neil has worked internationally at Ministry and Regulatory levels, and has also worked as a senior operational manager (Senior Nominated Person in two categories).

Anne specialises in transdisciplinary evidence synthesis and knowledge brokerage at the science/policy interface, especially in the environmental and health domains, and in the areas of risk perception and risk assessment. Her current research focuses on the use of evidence in policymaking, the changing nature of interactions between science and societal decision-making (the post-truth dynamic), and concepts of risk and precaution in the context of rapid technological change. Previously she was a Research Analyst and Senior Technical Advisor in the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, where she led a number of high-impact projects involving close collaboration with leading scientific and policy experts both within New Zealand and internationally. Anne holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia, and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA.

Joanne joined the University of Victoria in Wellington in January 2020 as the inaugural WorkSafe New Zealand Chair in Health and Safety. Professionally while a Chartered Ergonomist, Joanne has worked with the different specialisms in occupational health and safety in both research and practice. That has included being the Ergonomics and Human Factors lead at the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh. Taking that systems approach into workplace and research problems to understand the drivers and barriers in implementing occupational health and safety and transferring knowledge to practice.
Joanne has worked with a number of sectors including telecommunications and healthcare on topics including knowledge management in OHS, preventing musculoskeletal disorders, cancer and shift work, age and work and the OHS implications of return to work after cancer. This has been for clients including HSE, EU OSHA, Department of Health (UK), WorkSafe NZ and the European Parliament