23rd February 2021 | 11:21

We speak with Dr Paul Bertsch, Deputy Director of Science of the new Land and Water Business Unit at the CSIRO. The Business Unit brings together a diverse team of approximately 650 scientists and technical specialists from across CSIRO and builds partnerships with industry, government, and other research providers to generate the science which underpins sound stewardship of land and water resources, ecosystems, and the built environment.

Wastewater-based epidemiology approaches, to detect Covid-19 in wastewater, are being implemented worldwide as an environmental surveillance approach, to inform health authority decision-making.

Dr Bertsch’s team are at the forefront of developing more accurate tests for Covid-19 in wastewater in Australia.

Prior to joining CSIRO in 2013, Paul was the Director of the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment and Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, University of Kentucky, Lexington. He is the Georgia Power Professor of Environmental Chemistry Emeritus at the University of Georgia, Athens and is an adjunct Professor of Environmental Systems Engineering and Science at Clemson University, South Carolina.