Karen Johnson is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Engineering
at the School of Engineering and Computing Sciences
at Durham University. Having trained as a hydrogeologist,
graduating with an MSc from University College London in 1995, she worked
in the water industry (General Utilities/consultancy) for 3 years.
She returned to academia in 1998 and completed her PhD in mine water treatment
with Professor Paul Younger in 2001 at Newcastle University. She worked at
Newcastle University as a Research Associate until moving to
Durham University in 2005.
Karen’s research has a strong emphasis on using ‘wastes’ as resources.
To date, much of her research has focussed on the passive treatment
of contaminated waters and soils using ‘wastes’ such as secondary
aggregrates in place of primary aggregates. Karen has a track record
of multi-disciplinary projects collaborating both with industry,
regulatory authorities science and social science departments.
Karen has built up strong links with many science departments both
at Newcastle and Durham (Depts of Chemistry, Biology and Earth Sciences)
as well as at other national and international institutions
(eg Oregon University of Science and Health, USA).
As PI, she has held or is currently holding funding for over £1.8M
including EPSRC's ROBUST project
(Regeneration Of Brownfield Using Sustainable Technologies).
She is passionate about land and her current focus is trying to
spread the word about valuing soil as a resource which can help
us in the fight against climate change and flood mitigation.
She is developing sustainable technologies to increase water holding
capacity and stabilise carbon in soils in order to restore soil health
back to pre-industrialised status.
'A nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself' (President Roosevelt).
Karen Johnson was on the panel of
Rescuing Our Brownfield Spaces in
April 2014 as part of the ETUDE project.
