Teaching

Contributes to Undergraduate and Postgraduate teaching programmes:

CL446 Water and Environmental Management
CL413 Solid Waste Management
CL904 Waste Management and Landfill Design
CL913 Public Health Studies
EV921 Water and Environmental Management

Research interests

Ecology of Legionella species in compost environments - Legionnaires’ disease is a severe pneumonia caused by Legionella, usually Legionella pneumophila associated with contaminated aerosols from water systems, e.g. air conditioning, water cooling towers. However, in recent years several cases of Legionnaires’ disease in Scotland, caused by Legionella longbeachae have been linked to compost; most recently 4 cases occurring in Lothian have been reported in the media. The ecology of these organisms within compost is largely unknown. Studies have included work on: the presence of Legionella species in compost commercially available in the UK; the effect of greenhouse storage on Legionella survival in compost; the influence of free-living amoeba, particularly Acanthamoeba species, on Legionella ecology. See See Legionella spp. in UK composts – a potential public health issue

Scotland Chikhwawa Health Initiative – Funding through the Scottish Government International Development fund (2013-2016) is enabling the implementation of a Healthy Settings Programme in the Chikwawa district of Malawi. Healthy Settings aims to achieve healthy communities by not only addressing access to curative health services, but concentrating on the environmental, sociological and economic determinants for health in the home, school and work environments using a community led approach. The programme will be implemented in a cluster of 18 communities, 6 schools, 5 markets and a health centre in Chikhwawa to support the District Health Office to reduce risks to health in vulnerable communities. Community development through Healthy Settings has to come from the community itself and therefore the approach focuses on supporting and facilitating a community profiling process and the development of action plans by community members to give local solutions to health issues. In doing so we hope to ensure sustained change and improvement. For further information see an Overview of the Scotland Chikhwawa Health Initiative 2013 - 2016

Ocular infection - specifically keratitis caused by the free-living protozoa Acanthamoeba, and the association with contact lenses; much of this work has focused on newer generation silicone hydrogel lenses. Studies have included work on: The effect lens material has on Acanthamoebal attachement to contact lenses; the efficacy of contact lens disinfection solutions against Acanthamoeba; Potential new drugs for the treatment of ocular infection with Acanthamoeba; isolation and molecular typing of clinical and environmental isolates of Acanthamoeba.

Current Research Students

Sandra Currie (primary supervisor) – Ecology of Legionella species in compost
Sarah Rippon (secondary supervisor) - Measuring the Impact of Health Settings Approach in Malawi
Neil Pratt (secondary supervisor) – Automated HACCP systems in small scale environments
Ansley Kasambara (secondary supervisor) - Maternal Health Data Consitency and Management: A Longitudinal Study in Chikhwawa District
Becky Laidlaw (second supervisor) - use of mHealth in health promotion programmes

Professional activities

PhD viva external examiner: Examiner; 10/6/2021
External Examiner for 2 MSc programmes at University of Salford: Examiner; 1/10/2019
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (External organisation): Member; 2014
Interviewed on Gardener's Question Time Radio 4: Interviewee; 25/10/2013
Media reporting of Legionella research: Interviewee; 10/2013
Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (External organisation): Member; 16/9/2012

More professional activities

Projects

Doctoral Training Partnership 2018-19 University of Strathclyde | Hope, Caitlin: Beverland, Iain (Principal Investigator) Beattie, Tara (Co-investigator) White, Chris (Co-investigator) Hope, Caitlin (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2019 - 01-Jan-2023
Establishing an interdisciplinary network to address barriers to sanitation and hygiene among fishing communities of Africa?s Great Lakes (GCRF Networking Grant): Beattie, Tara (Principal Investigator) Morse, Tracy (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2018 - 31-Jan-2019
Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP 2016-2017 University of Strathclyde) | Mabonga, Fiona: Beverland, Iain (Principal Investigator) Beattie, Tara (Co-investigator) Mabonga, Fiona (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2016 - 01-Jan-2020
EPSRC Institutional Sponsorship: Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) / R160677-111: Beattie, Tara (Principal Investigator) Beverland, Iain (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2016 - 31-Jan-2017
Scotland Chikhwawa Health Initiative (SCHI) - Healthy Settings: Beattie, Tara (Principal Investigator) Morse, Tracy (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2013 - 30-Jan-2016
FAST (for accelerated sustainable transformations) microbes: Beattie, Tara (Academic); EcoEcosse, a SME marketing automated composters which speed up composting of food waste, required analysis of the compost starter cultures provided with their machines and outputs from a commercial scale machine based at the Lord Todd refectory on Strathclyde University Campus and a domestic scale machine operated at home.; 01-Jan-2012 - 31-Jan-2013

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Address

Civil and Environmental Engineering
James Weir Building

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Dr Tara Beattie

Lecturer

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Expertise

Publications