Dr Stuart Simpson

Dr Stuart Simpson is a Senior Principal Research Scientist in CSIRO Environment and is presently the Group Leader for ‘Healthy Communities & Ecosystems’ within the Industry Environments program.

This group develops risk forecasting systems to protect Australian communities from acute and chronic shocks, reduce harmful wastes derived from consumption and develop sovereign sustainability options in green resource recovery and for Australia’s problematic wastes.

Teams include:
(i) Waste Beneficiation & Storage, the develops environmentally safe approaches for storage and repurposing of waste streams to minimise pollution and increase the beneficial reuse and circularity of resources.
(ii) Green Resource Recovery, that develops pathways to recover metal resources and reduce environment footprint from resource extraction and consumption; and
(iii) EcoSurveillance Systems, the develops systems to detect, quantify and predict risks of adverse effects of industry contaminants to communities and ecosystems;

Stuart's fields of expertise include (specific research areas/capabilities)

• Water and sediment pollution minimisation, focusing on the quantification of the form (speciation), behaviour (bioavailability and fate), ecotoxicological effects of chemical contaminants derived from industry waste, and the development of guidelines and frameworks for assessing impacts, pollution minimisation and long-term waste- management.

• Design and provision process-studies that provide quantitative data and knowledge used to describe and evaluate pathways to minimise pollution generation from waste materials and optimise waste remediation strategies.

Current activities
• Contaminant mobilisation process studies to assist in development of concrete waste minimisation strategies during closure and remediation of large industrial sites at sensitive sites.
• Creation and evaluation of environmental risk models to inform refinery industry site closure plans.
• Advisory to a broad range of industries and government on environmental quality assessment tools and frameworks.

Fields of Special Competence:
Major research interests have been water sediment quality assessment, encompassing the quantification of the form (environmental chemistry, speciation), behaviour (reactivity, fate and processes controlling speciation, bioavailability), ecotoxicological effects (lethal, sub-lethal, to chronic effects and bioaccumulation) of contaminants and the development of guidelines and frameworks that underpin the minimisation of pollution generation from wastes.

Awards
• 2006 Land and Water Australia Eureka Prize for Water Research.
• 2006 CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement, 2006.
• 2015 CSIRO Newton Turner Award (Enabling 30 days of science discussions at research institutes in USA).
• 2020: CSIRO Land and Water, Science Excellence Award for 'Wastewater testing for early community detection of COVID-19 Team'.
• 2021: Finalist (1 of 3) - Sir Ian McLennan Impact from Science and Engineering Medal for 'COVID sewage EcoSurveillance'.
• 2022: Finalist (1 of 2) - Sir Ian McLennan Impact from Science and Engineering Medal for 'SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance team for the detection of COVID-19 in the community'.

Recent Professional Experience
• 2017-2021: Member, Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP) Working Group 42 on ‘Impacts of wastes and other matter in the marine environment from mining operations, including deep-sea mining’ GESAMP advises the United Nations (UN) system on the scientific aspects of marine environmental protection.
• 2017. Member, Independent Peer Review for Latrobe Valley Regional Rehabilitation Strategy (LVRSS), Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, Victoria.
• 2016-present: Adjunct Professor, University of New South Wales (2019-present)
• 2013-2014: Invited Scientific Committee member of for ECHA (European Chemical Agency) ‘Topical Scientific Workshop on Risk Assessment for the Sediment Compartment'.
1996-present: Member, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC)
• 2011-present: Editor for the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research (ESPR)
• 2008-present: Committee Member of SETAC Sediment Advisory Group (SEDAG) (2008-present, Chair from 2012-2016)

Publications:
Author of more than 200 peer-reviewed research papers, ten book chapters and 160 scientific research reports to industry on environmental contamination (pollution-waste) management and mitigation issues.

Recent national 'environmental assessment' report contributions
• 2017 Lead author of National Acid Sulfate Soils Guidance for Dredging Sediments and Dredge Spoil Management (the recently competed for DAWR).
• 2013 Co-led the Revision of Australia’s Sediment Quality Guidelines.
• 2009 Authored the chemical and ecotoxicology assessment components of Australia’s National Assessment Guidelines for Dredging (NAGD).

• 2016 Co-editor and author of the handbook Sediment Quality Assessment: A Practical Guide.
https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/download?pid=csiro:EP165955&dsid=DS1

Publons-Researcher ID: https://publons.com/researcher/2815997/stuart-l-simpson/

Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=goGxtioAAAAJ&hl=en

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/StuartSimpson?ev=hdrxprf

[Note: Several Capability 'Fact Sheets' may be downloaded from near the bottom of this web-page site]