17-11-00
PHD Students Appointed at College’s Research Institute

The development of the North Highland College’s Environmental Research Institute in Thurso has continued with the appointment of its first two PhD students.
Both are registered at the University of the Highlands and Islands and will work towards their doctorates over the next three years. They will be supervised by Dr Stuart Gibb, of the ERI.
Dr Gibb said that advertisements for the positions had attracted candidates from throughout Scotland and the UK and as far afield as the Netherlands, Portugal, Malaysia, Canada and Nigeria. This, he said, demonstrated the level of interest in the research programmes of the ERI and UHI.
Ian Rae, an honours graduate in Environmental Science from the University of Aberdeen, will investigate the “Use of natural products in the purification of potable waters and treatment of wastewaters.”
In many parts of the Highlands and Islands the supply and treatment of water to required environment standards presents unique challenges. Dr Gibb says the team at the ERI believes an attractive solution to this problem may lie in the use of naturally occurring materials to remove the unwanted contaminants and pollutants.
The overall aim of this project is to investigate the potential of locally sourced materials for the remediation of potable and wastewaters. Ultimately it is hoped the project will yield economic and environmental benefits locally.
John Coll, an honours graduate in Environmental Science and Biology at the University of Stirling, will be studying “Changes in land use in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland associated with global climatic.”
Dr Gibb points out that although some consensus is being reached over global climate change, the regional impacts are more uncertain. “This is true for the Highlands and Islands where complex weather systems and topography have resulted in an inadequate assessment of the effects of climatic variability,” he said.
”The Highlands and Islands is also an economically and environmentally sensitive, often marginal, region which is dominated by rural communities, highly reliant on the use and management of natural resources such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, conservation and tourism.
”The consequences of global change in this region are thus potentially far reaching. The overall objective of this studentship is to model and predict shifts in land use in the Highlands and Islands resulting from various climate-change scenarios and to assess the environmental, social and economic consequences of these changes.”
The projects will be undertaken within the UHI schools of Natural System Sciences and Sustainable Rural Development and will see the ERI forge links with the universities of Stirling and East Anglia among others.
College manager Rosemary Thompson said: “These developments reflect the growing profile of new opportunities available through the participation in a wide range of environmental European Projects as well as the UHI project.
“These include studies of ‘Waste management strategies for sparsely populated areas, Use of renewable energy and the Re-Use of cut-over peat land.’ The ERI provides the natural focus for these activities.”