Emerging Challenges

During over 30 years working in the water sector, Melissa has undertaken a wide range of roles including in operations, scientific, engineering, asset management, change and data and technology resulting in a broad and deep understanding of the sector. This knowledge is proving very helpful now as she turns her attention to the ways in which water sector data can be exploited to achieve better outcomes. She is currently co-leading the exciting and award-winning Stream initiative alongside Andrew Myers at Northumbrian Water, which is focused on unlocking water data to realise value for customers, society and the environment. She was named in the 2025 Open UK Honours list for her contributions to open data in the UK.

Jun Li is a Research Fellow in the Department of Environment and Geography at the University of York. His research focuses on the occurrence, sources and environmental risks of emerging contaminants, including pharmaceuticals, personal care products and PFAS. He combines large-scale river monitoring with statistical modelling and machine learning to understand patterns of contamination and assess risks to aquatic ecosystems. He works with academic, industry and charity partners on projects across the UK and Europe, generating evidence to inform chemical risk assessment and pollution management.