University of Brighton professor James Ebdon wins a prize for safer water

Professor James Ebdon of the University of Brighton³ has won the 2026 John Snow Public Health Innovation Prize. It is awarded by the learned society Applied Microbiology International², and recognises applied microbiology that delivers measurable improvements in public health and environmental health.

Ebdon is an environmental microbiologist who co-directs research in the university’s Centre for Environment and Society. His work looks at the role of water and sanitation in the spread and control of water-related diseases. Much of it uses bacteriophages, or phages, from the human gut as tracers: finding them in a river or a well is a way of telling whether human faecal pollution has got in.

The society’s citation says he has more than 25 years of experience, with projects in India, Malawi, Nepal and Bangladesh. In Malawi, a UNICEF-funded study led to the redesign and better management of rural wells. In Kolkata, a Gates Foundation project looked at how typhoid spreads in densely populated neighbourhoods. In Bangladesh he has led work with Médecins Sans Frontières on treating faecal sludge in emergencies, which included building laboratory capacity at the world’s largest refugee settlement.

Closer to home, his university profile says he has measured how well a full-scale Thames Water wastewater reuse system removes viruses. He is also helping to develop phage-based tools for spotting human faecal contamination in surface waters, in a project that runs from 2026 to 2029. A PhD student he supervises is looking at what drives pollution in Chichester, Langstone and Pagham harbours.

Nominations for the 2027 Horizon Awards are open on the society’s website.