Professional summary
Cath Barnett is an environmental contaminant scientist specialising in the transfer of radionuclides to animals in the terrestrial environment. She is currently the UKCEH principal investigator for the EU Horizon Europe project PLAN-B which studies the impacts of light and noise pollution on terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystems.
She has led and made significant contributions to many projects studying radionuclide transfer within farm and semi-natural animal production systems and contributed to the development of approaches to assess the exposure of wildlife to radioactivity. She has developed resources for and led the organisation and delivery of training courses on Radiological Environmental Protection worldwide. She leads UKCEH's involvement in the Environment Agency framework agreement related to radioactive substance regulation and she has previously managed and gained UKAS accreditation for the UKCEH gamma analysis facility. She has sourced, collated and provided data for the terrestrial wildlife database used by the ERICA Tool which is a software system used by regulators worldwide to assess the radiological risk to wildlife, provided data used to estimate the transfer of radionuclides to human foodstuffs, contributed data to the International Commission on Radiological Protection for their improvements in the field of radiological protection of the environment, reviewed and collated data for several international databases such as the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) handbooks on the transfer of radionuclides to human foodstuffs (TRS 472) and wildlife (TRS 479), and is currently an invited member of an IAEA MEREIA working group assessing mixed contaminants in the Oslo fjord. Recently, she has led the input on the potential sources of radioactive contaminants following the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka Dam to a rapid assessment report prepared by UKCEH for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, has been involved in several projects studying the impacts of nanomaterials, PFAS and heavy metals on the environment and has reviewed and summarised EC regulations and directives describing proposed changes to pharmaceutical legislation concerning environmental risk assessment. Cath has an excellent publication record which includes journal articles (six as first author), datasets, data papers and reports; many are open access. Cath has a broad range of experience, interests, and skills and enjoys working on a diverse range of topics. She is keen to further develop her input into the impact of mixed stressors on the environment and to progress the research priorities related to light and noise pollution impacts on terrestrial biodiversity.