6th International Conference on Testing the Waters (TTW6): The International Conference on Wastewater Surveillance
Cranfield University will host the 6th International Conference on Testing the Waters (TTW6) in Oxford, 26-27 June 2023. Since TTW1 in Lisbon in 2013, it has been held in Queensland, Australia (2021); Foshan, China (2019); Lisbon, Portugal (2017); and Ascona, Switzerland (2015). TTW has been, from the outset, uniquely focused on wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). The event was initiated by the EU SCORE sewage network and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), both having a focus on biomarkers of chemicals monitoring and management.
Download a copy of the event programme.
TTW6 Awardee
Best Oral Presentation
Elana Chan, Stanford University, USA
£200
Oral Presentation Runner-up
Tim Boogaerts, University of Antwerp, Belgium;
£100
Best Poster
Natan Van Wichelen, University of Antwerp, Belgium,
£100
Poster Runner-up
Alvaro Garcia-Delgado, Bangor University, UK
£50
Conference theme
Advances in wastewater-based epidemiology:
Recent developments in the measurement of new markers of population health, exposure and activity in wastewater.
Linking wastewater analysis with public health management:
Large-scale monitoring programmes of drug, disease and/or exposure control authorities, evaluation of policies using wastewater monitoring data, cultural and legal aspects of drug monitoring.
New applications and future perspectives:
Bridging WBE and other data sources, early warning of new substances via wastewater analysis.
EBNet travel bursary
EBNet are offering support, to UK-based ECRs, of £200 towards travel and accommodation, if you are attending the conference. Get in touch by email for details, or when your abstract is accepted to request support.
Organising committee
Leon Barron, Imperial College London, UK
Lubertus Bijlsma, University Jaume I, Spain
Sara Castiglioni, Mario Negri, Italy
Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, University of Bath, UK
Andrew Singer, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK
Zhugen Yang, Cranfield University, UK
Abstract submission
Keynote speakers
Professor Damià Barceló Cullerès
Catalan Institute for Water Research, ICRA, Spain
Full Professor IDAEA-CSIC, Spain since 2008 to date. Director, Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA-CERCA), Girona, Spain, 2016 to date. Full Professor Chair in Biology. College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Distinguished Scientist Fellowship Program (DSFP). Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universities of Ioannina, Greece, in 2014 and by the University of Lleida, June 2021 and Almeria, Spain in May 2022, Honorary and Guest Professor at ZAFU, Hangzhou, China in 2019 to March 2022. Foreign Expert of East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai, China, 2021-2022, Adjunct Professor in Sustainability Cluster, School of Engineering at the UPES, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India from January 2022 to December 2026.
Awards: Recipharm Environmental Award, Sweden in 2012, Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW), 5th Award on Water Management & Protection, Saudi Arabia in 2012 and Prize King Jaime I on the Protection of Nature from Generalitat of Valencia, Spain in 2007. Supervision of PhD students, 1992 to date, > 65 PhD theses. Expertise: analysis, fate, risk and removal of emerging contaminants, nanomaterials and microplastics from water, sewage epidemiology of drugs and proteins. Listed since 2010 as highly cited scientists, ISI Highly Cited, with a Hirsch-Index of 176 and total number of citations over 137,000 and more than 1,600 publications (source: Google Scholar). Editor of high-quality Elsevier journals from 1990 to date: STOTEN, GREEAC, TRAC, Methods X, CSCEE, and COESH, and book series CAC, ACP and HEC.
Keynote title: LC-Orbitrap-and Maldi-TOF- High Resolution Mass Spectrometry in Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) for the Determination of Small and Large Molecules as Biomarkers of Exposure. Needs for Covid-19 Testing with Environmental Proteomics (EP-WBE).
Dr Teemu Gunnar
Finnish Insitute for Health and Welfare, Finland
Teemu Gunnar is a head of the Forensic Chemistry Unit at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. His unit is, among other tasks, responsible for nationally-centralised toxicology for all post-mortem, driving under influence and prison cases in Finland, as well as the WADA-accredited doping analyses and biomarker analytics. He has been the principal investigator for nationwide illicit drug monitoring through wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) for over 10 years, and has consulted various countries on the aspects of WBE. He is also a member of the Finnish Coordination Group on Drug Policy. He received the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TIAFT) Young Scientist Award in 2005 and the Finnish Medical Society award in 2017 – the latter concerning publication on WBE studies.
Keynote title: The role of wastewater-based epidemiology for illicit drug monitoring and combining information with other data sources
Professor Davey Jones
Bangor University, UK
Davey Jones holds a Professorial Chair in Soil and Environmental Science at Bangor University. A major focus of his research is on understanding human pathogen behaviour in water-food-soil-plant-microbial systems. He currently co-leads the wastewater-based public health monitoring programme in Wales.
Keynote title: Wastewater monitoring in Wales: transitioning from public health to One Health.
Professor Kevin Thomas
University of Queensland, Australia
Professor Kevin Thomas is Director of the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) at the University of Queensland, Australia. Kevin is an environmental health scientist with a particular interest in understanding the environmental exposures associated with contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) with the goal of protecting environmental and human health.
His current research is focused on understanding human exposure to plastics pollution and developing mass spectrometric analytical methods for characterising plastics and other CECs. His team is focused on assessing community-wide health status through analysing wastewater (wastewater-based epidemiology), establishing alternative approaches to exposure monitoring, for example, explanted silicone prostheses and wristbands and better understanding how plastics cycle in the environment with the aim of reducing exposure.
Author of over 300 peer-reviewed papers and Associate Editor for the Journal Science of the Total Environment, Kevin is a strong collaborative researcher, having co-founded the international SCORE network on sewer biomarker analysis for community health assessment.
Keynote title: From niche to mainstream and beyond for WBE
Key dates
Call for abstracts: 1 January-15 March 2023 - Deadline extended to 22 March 2023
Notification of authors: 15 April 2023
Registration opens: 3 April 2023
Registration closes: 26 May 2023 - Deadline extended to 11 June 2023
Conference fees
| Early bird (ends 30 April 2023) | £250 |
| General | £300 |
| Student* | £200 |
| Conference dinner (26 June 2023)** | £50 |
*Please bring your student ID with you on the day.
**Includes a welcome drink on arrival, 3 course meal and ½ bottle of wine and the venue is Oxford’s only five star hotel, The Randolph Hotel ballroom.
If you are unable to attend after registering please let us know as soon as possible, the deadline for refunds will be one month before when catering orders are placed.
Sponsorship opportunities
As a sponsor of our two-day annual conference, you will have the opportunity to engage with the wastewater analysis industry and academia while also being highlighted as an event sponsor for maximum exposure.
Registration sponsor - Sold
Includes materials in the registration/welcome area and conference auditorium
Logo on the event website, event communications and event promotional activity
Exhibition stand
2 x event tickets, including dinner
£3000 + VAT
Refreshment breaks sponsor
Includes materials in the refreshment break area and conference auditorium
Logo on the event website, event communications and event promotional activity
Exhibition stand
2 x event tickets, including dinner
£3000 + VAT
Dinner sponsor
Includes materials in the dinner venue and conference auditorium
Logo on the event website, event communications and event promotional activity
Exhibition stand
2 x event tickets, including dinner
£3000 + VAT
Exhibitor only option (5 available) - Sold out
Includes x 1 event ticket, including dinner
£750 + VAT
If you would like to talk about other sponsorship opportunities or involvement in the conference please get in touch: zhugen.yang@cranfield.ac.uk
Exhibitors
Scientific session
1. Chemical exposure and usage (chemicals of concern)
2. Infectious and non-communicable diseases
3. Normalisation approaches to inform modelling for epidemiology
4. Scaling up and sensing
5. New perspectives in One Health WBE
Scientific Committee
Leon Barron, Imperial College London, UK
Kyle Bibi, University of Notre Dame, USA
Lubertus Bijlsma, University Jaume I, Spain
Alexandria Boehm, Stanford University, USA
Sara Castiglioni, Mario Negri Institute, Italy
Jonathan Cooper, University of Glasgow, UK
Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, University of Bath, UK
Lian Lundy, Middlesex University, UK
Xiqing Li, Peking University, China
João Matias, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), Portugal
Andrew Singer, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK
Kwanrawee Sirikanchana, Chulabhorn Research Institute, Thailand
David Thomas, Mott MacDonald, UK
Kevin Thomas, University of Queensland, Australia
Peter Vikersland, Virginia Tech, USA
Matthew Wade, UK Health Security Agency, UK
Zhugen Yang, Cranfield University, UK
Event programme
Download a copy of the event programme
Location and travel details
Said Business School, Oxford, Park End St, Oxford, OX1 1HP, UK.
Oxford Railway Station is less than a 5 minute walk from the venue.
Parking in Oxford is very expensive so we recommend using one of the five Park and Ride sites.
Who should attend
Experts in the disciplines involved in wastewater analysis, including epidemiologists, analytical and environmental chemists, environmental engineers, pharmacologists, toxicologists, experts in forensics and stakeholders from public health sector, addiction and prevention institutions.
