Saskia Nowicki

Postdoctoral Researcher in Drinking-Water Safety

Academic Profile

Saskia works on understanding, measuring, and communicating water risks and trade-offs, especially as they relate to environmental health. She applies an interdisciplinary systems-based approach to research, drawing on a background in environmental science (BSc 2008-12) with specialisation in water science, policy and management (MSc 2015-16) and health risk in complex adaptive rural water systems (DPhil 2017-21). Her current research focuses on drinking-water safety in rural low-income contexts, using mixed-methods to seek insight at multiple levels from the molecular to the institutional.

Saskia is working with the REACH water security programme and the Water Programme of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and is co-chair of the Oxford Water Network leadership team. She is invested in learning about and applying feminist and anti-racist approaches to research and participates in the Community of Women in Water (CWiW) and anti-racism activity within SOGE. Through a knowledge-exchange funded Water Learning Partnership, Saskia has also been working on developing teaching resources and activities with schools in Kenya and Cameroon.

Selected Publications

Nowicki, S., Birhanu, B., Tanui, F., Sule, M., Charles, K., Olago, D. and Kebede, S. (2023) Science of The Total Environment, 904.
1537188 - Water chemistry poses health risks as reliance on ...
Nowicki, S., Bukachi, S., Hoque, S., Katuva, J., Musyoka, M., Sammy, M., Mwaniki, M., Omia, D., Wambua, F. and Charles, K. (2022) International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(1).
1231834 - Fear, efficacy, and environmental health risk repo...
Nowicki, S., deLaurent, Z., de Villiers, E., Githinji, G. and Charles, K. (2021) PLoS One, 16(1).
1158517 - The utility of Escherichia coli as a contamination...
Charles, K., Nowicki, S. and Bartram, J. (2020) npj Clean Water, 3.
1127076 - A framework for monitoring the safety of water ser...
Nowicki, S., Koehler, J. and Charles, K. (2020) npj Clean Water, 3(1).
1100820 - Including water quality monitoring in rural water ...
Charles, K., Nowicki, S., Thomson, P. and Bradley, D. (2020) in WATER SCIENCE, POLICY, AND MANAGEMENT: A GLOBAL CHALLENGE, pp. 97–116.
Nowicki, S., Lapworth, D., Ward, J., Thomson, P. and Charles, K. (2018) Science of the Total Environment, 646, pp. 782–791.
891180 - Tryptophan-like fluorescence as a measure of micro...
Laauwen, M. and Nowicki, S. (no date) ACS ES&T Water [Preprint].