Speakers
Speakers' Biographies
William J. Angell, University of Minnesota
William J. Angell is a University of Minnesota Professor of Housing in the College of Design and Director of one of four U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -founded Regional Radon Training Centers, the Midwest Universities Radon Consortium. He chaired the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Radon Project’s Prevention and Mitigation Working Group and he is President of the American Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists. He has served as Chair of the National Environmental Health Association’s National Radon Proficiency Program’s Educational Advisory Board. Angell has been Principal Investigator on more than 120 EPA, state, tribal, association, industry, and other sponsored projects. In addition to his University work, he has been a Visiting Scientist at two national laboratories, the EPA’s Radiation and Indoor Environments National Laboratory and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Angell has testified before the U.S. Congress concerning the scientific and technical foundation for the U.S. radon policy. He has chaired two external peer review committees that assessed EPA’s radon reduction research involving houses and large buildings including schools. Angell has directed the development of EPA’s radon in schools radon measurement and mitigation training programs. He has received EPA’s Exceptional Service Award for his work and the U.S. Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities 2009 Excellence in Extension Award for the North Central Region for his work in radon training. He has also received two University of Minnesota Extension Distinguished Faculty Awards as well as the College of Human Ecology’s Educational Leadership Award.
Dr. Birnstingl, Managing Director, Regenesis Ltd
Dr. Birnstingl is the Managing Director of Regenesis Ltd. and has 20 years’ experience in academic and commercial environmental sectors. He is responsible for the growth and development of Regenesis across Europe, and since joining the company in 2002, has overseen the introduction and commercial use of six new technical products within the UK and other European countries for in situ aquifer restoration under varied national regulatory and permitting regimes. These include products for aerobic and anaerobic bioremediation of both fuels and chlorinated solvents, immobilisation of toxic metals, in situ chemical oxidation of organic contaminants and vapour protection. The Regenesis products have since been applied on over 500 field projects across Europe (Sweden to Portugal; Ireland to Poland), and the company has enjoyed sustained growth throughout this time.
Before joining Regenesis, Dr. Birnstingl worked in both academic and commercial sectors involved in soil and groundwater remediation and related research. He has specialised throughout in the establishment of new technologies and the optimisation of existing technologies within the academic, private industrial and international consulting environmental arenas.
Dr Birnstingl holds a Ph.D. in bioremediation and has lectured widely in his subject area throughout Europe and in both North and South America.
Michael Moore, Senior Contaminated Land Officer, Rochdale MBC
Michael studied at Plymouth University and worked in private consulting for several years before joining the public sector. He worked for St Helens and Trafford Councils before joining Rochdale MBC and now has over nine years experience within the public sector as a contaminated land officer, the majority of that time being on land assessment, dealing with both planning submissions and Part 2A issues.
In these roles Michael has taken part in the investigation of several potential Part 2A sites and is presently developing a final prioritised list of sites requiring inspection with Rochdale MBC, he is also reviewing the Councils Contaminated Land Strategy on how the inspections will be undertaken. Michael, during his career, has successfully obtained CLCPP funding to investigate potential Part 2A sites and has been the lead officer in the final stages of the investigation and subsequent determination of Boo Hole.
Martin Freeman is the Managing Director of ProTen Services Ltd
With 40 years’ experience of supplying specialist building services, Martin has also owned a laboratory consultancy service and has been involved in the introduction of a number of innovative products and techniques associated with building conservation and the health of the occupants.
Co-author of two Government publications on the safe use of wood treatment in buildings, Martin has also been a member of a Government scientific committee.
He has been engaged in the remediation of radon for over 20 years and was the initiator of The Radon Council, the industry technical and self-regulatory body. In recent years, Martin has also been involved in the control of other contaminant gases arising from the ground.
Martin has brought an innovative culture to ProTen Services since joining the firm in 2006, and has driven the development of two unique systems. ProTen Services’ ADD Waterproofing system provides a unique solution to the challenge of combining radon control with waterproofing that meets the British Standard in cellars and basements.
Using techniques learnt and practiced in their radon remediation and indoor air quality divisions, ProTen have also developed Wetaway, a rapid reoccupation system for flooded and water-damaged properties.
Phil Crowcroft, Environmental Resources Management Limited
Phil Crowcroft is a Partner in Environmental Resources Management (ERM). He has over 30 years experience in dealing with land contamination and brownfield regeneration, primarily in the UK. He has undertaken many high profile projects dealing with perceived and real threats to health and the environment, and regularly provides expert witness services. His experience has been developed through work as a specialist contractor, an environmental consultant and as a regulator. He also keeps chickens and has three cats.
Jo Strange, Card Geotechnics Ltd
Jo is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Environmentalist and also a Specialist in Land Condition (SiLC). Her specialist fields are land contamination, remediation and landfill gas. Jo has been involved in monitoring of landfills and design of gas control systems, in addition to carrying out assessments of soil gases and associated risk assessments and design of gas protection solutions for commercial and residential developments.
Her career has taken her from large multi-disciplinary consultants to her current position as Regional Director at specialist consultants Card Geotechnics Ltd.
Jo is a co-author of the ICE design and practice guide:’Contaminated Land’ :investigation, assessment and remediation, 2nd Edition, 2008.
Simon Talbot, Ground-Gas Solutions Ltd
Simon has worked for over twenty years on ground investigations and contaminated land issues with much of this time focusing on ground-gas contamination.
Simon is a graduate Geologist with an MSc in Engineering Geology. After working abroad for a number of years Simon has worked for several UK consultancies before becoming Director of the Greater Manchester Geological Unit (GMGU), a multidisciplinary local authority support unit providing minerals and waste planning and contaminated land consultancies services. Through GMGU’s partnership with the University of Manchester, Simon was involved in undergraduate and post-graduate teaching, professional training and research activity.
In 2006, Simon negotiated the transfer of GMGU into Urban Vision (UV), a public private partnership. Through UV, Simon, in collaboration with the University of Manchester and Salamander, a University technology spin-off company, successfully obtained research funding from the DTI for the development of an in-borehole continuous ground gas monitoring device and an improved ground-risk assessment methodology. This research project was highly successful and Salamander successfully brought the Gasclam® to market while new methodologies for interpreting ground-gas, time-series (continuous) data were disseminated via a series of workshops chaired by Simon. Due to the success of the project Simon left UV to create GGS in May 2009.
Simon has presented at a number of conferences and has published several papers and articles on a range of contamination issues.
Ann Barker, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council
Ann Barker, the Lead Officer Contaminated Land at Bradford Metropolitan District Council, has over 20 years experience of dealing with land quality issues both in consultancy and as a regulator. In her current role, she leads on implementation of Part IIA and strategic land quality issues.
Ann chairs the Environmental Protection UK Land Quality Committee; chaired the YAHPAC (Yorkshire & Humberside Pollution Advisory Council) Land Sub-Committee for 8 years; is a founder of the Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum; is on the steering group for the Better Business & Environment Forum in West Yorkshire; and represents YAHPAC on the Advisory Group of the CIEH Standing Conference on Land Contamination. Ann has a degree in geology, a post graduate diploma in Environmental Protection and a M.Sc. in Contaminated Land Management. She is also a guest lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan and Bradford Universities.
Jon Parry, SLR Consulting
Jon is a Principal at SLR and has over 11 years of experience in site investigation and quantitative risk assessment.
Jon is a geologist with a Masters in hydrogeology. He is responsible for managing SLRs UK Land
Quality risk assessment team, and is office manager of SLRs multidisciplinary Bristol office.
Jon specialises in controlled waters and human health risk assessment, contaminant fate and transport modelling and hydrogeological characterisation. He has extensive experience in the design of site investigations to enable collection of high quality data for use in risk assessment models. Areas of work also include emergency fuel spill response, environmental risk assessment of top Tier COMAH sites, and Part II a investigations.
Jon has particular experience of petroleum hydrocarbon assessment, having worked for most of the major UK retail petroleum sector clients over the last 11 years, and has specialised in the assessment of hydrocarbon vapour risks for the last five years, with a focus on soil vapour sampling. Jon Chairs the western regional group of the Geological Society, based in Bristol, and is a member of the Geological Society’s professional committee.
