Matt is a microbial ecologist based at the University of Exeter’s European Centre for Environment and Human Health, specialising in data science, open research, and evidence synthesis. Matt has over 10 years’ experience in applying computational and statistical methods to microbial data, working primarily in the R language. His PhD focused on applying invasion ecology to microbial communities, and he most recently worked on a large systematic review and meta-analysis with Argentinian collaborators about the relationship between antibiotic use and resistance in the beef cattle industry.

As part of BlueAdapt, he is primarily working on an update of a now 10-year old systematic review and meta-analysis concerning the association between recreational exposure to seawater and estimated cases of infection by sewage-borne microorganisms [1]. This will provide up-to-date and broader estimates of the health risks associated with recreational exposure to (potentially polluted) seawater, feeding into the project’s economic impact assessments. Adjacent to this, he is involved in a collaboration with the University of Galway which seeks to understand how people use Surfers Against Sewage’s Safer Seas and Rivers Service (SSRS) app, and how it affects their health. You can find out more about this here: https://blueadapt.eu/sea-user-health-survey/

[1] Leonard AFC, Singer A, Ukoumunne OC, Gaze WH, Garside R. Is it safe to go back into the water? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the risk of acquiring infections from recreational exposure to seawater. Int J Epidemiol. 2018 Apr 1;47(2):572-586. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyx281. PMID: 29529201; PMCID: PMC5913622.