Harriet Sleight
PhD Student

Profile

Biography

Harriet is a PhD researcher interested in the impacts of pharmaceuticals on the environment, particularly in agricultural contexts.  Harriet’s work combines the fields of soil science, environmental chemistry, ecotoxicology and plant biology to investigate the potential impacts of pharmaceuticals on the health of agricultural soils and crops.  

Prior to starting her PhD at the University of York, Harriet completed an integrated masters (MSci) in Environmental Science at Lancaster University where she found her interest in the behaviour of pollutants in the environment, environmental chemistry and soil science.  Harriet completed a masters dissertation investigating the performance of the atmospheric trace gas Halon-1301 as a groundwater age tracer in the UK.  This project stemmed from Harriet’s work investigating water pollution and groundwater age dating techniques whilst undertaking a research placement in Nagasaki University, Japan. Before this, Harriet researched soil-plant-ecosystem interactions with burrowing seabirds on Skomer island in Pembrokeshire; mapping island soil concentrations of the key nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus and utilising stable isotope ratios to infer nutrient origins.  Harriet is excited to be able to transfer her experiences in soil science, environmental chemistry and plant-soil interactions to this multidisciplinary PhD.

Career

2020 – present: PhD Environmental Science, University of York.

2016 – 2020: MSci (Hons) Environmental Science, Lancaster University