Talent
Dr Bruce Williamson
Dr Williamson has over 30 years experience as a research scientist and consultant on the aquatic environment. For most of his career, Bruce was a scientist with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research - NIWA (and its predecessors). He worked on a very wide range of aquatic science issues that include: water quality problems in drinking water; water and sediment analysis; riparian management; aquatic habitat assessments; instream-processes; nutrient budgets; sediment chemistry and its effect on contaminant fate; environmental risk assessment and ecotoxicology; physical and chemical processes in estuaries; development and implementation of monitoring programs; diffuse source pollution from agriculture, forestry and urban stormwater; and point source pollution from municipal, marinas, port activities, industrial and mining wastewaters. Although Bruce’s tertiary training was largely in chemistry, he has led and worked with teams of hydrologists, ecologists, microbiologists, statisticians, and modelers. In 2000, he founded Diffuse Sources Ltd and since then broadened his consulting experience through three years with Geosyntec Consultants in the USA.
Dr Jim Cooke
Dr Cooke has over 30 years experience working with a wide range of environmental projects. His career includes research scientist , business development manager, manager of an overseas subsidiary, leader of a national centre, managing environmental projects for a large multidisciplicary consulting company. Dr Cooke has worked on a wide range of aquatic science issues, including nutrient runoff from pasture catchments, nitrogen and phosphorus transformations in streams, sediments and wetlands, natural waste water treatment systems, environmental flow issues , sediment-water interactions, assessments of environmental effects, development of national and regional standards and their interaction with the planning process, development of monitoring programs, diffuse source pollution from agriculture, forestry and urban sources. Dr Cooke has wide experience in the effective management of environmental projects including project teams located in several Australian states as well as New Zealand. Dr Cooke has led and worked with teams of hydrologists, engineers, coastal oceanographers, aquatic plant specialists, fishery scientists, ecologists, microbiologists, statisticians, and modellers on a wide variety of problems. Dr Cooke serves on the management board (as treasurer) of the IWA Specialist Group on Diffuse Pollution.
Dr Geoff Mills
Geoff has been an environmental scientist for over 20 years, initially training in organic contaminant chemistry. Before joining Diffuse Sources, he worked at Chemistry Division of DSIR, Waikato University, Environment Waikato, and NIWA. His experience includes a broad range of environmental science areas including monitoring programme design and implementation, assessment of urban impacts on aquatic environments, municipal wastewater impacts, chemical contaminant analysis, behaviour and fate in aquatic systems, data analysis and interpretation, and technical input into resource consents, policy and plans.