School of Engineering

Prof William Sloan

Prof William T Sloan
  • Professor of Environmental Engineering (Infrastructure and Environment)

telephone: 01413304076
email: William.Sloan@glasgow.ac.uk


Biography

  • EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow
  • B.Sc. Mathematics (Heriot-Watt)
  • M.Sc. Oceanography (U.C.N.W.)
  • P.G.C.E Mathematics (Newcastle)
  • PhD. Civil Engineering (Newcastle)

Research Interests

Bill Sloan’s research interests are in mathematical modelling of both biological and physical environmental systems. His first degree was in Mathematics (Heriot-Watt) followed by an MSc in Physical Oceanography (UCNW) then several years in industry with engineering consultancies before undertaking a PhD in Civil Engineering (University of Newcastle upon Tyne). He defended his thesis on macroscale hydrological modelling in November 1999 and was employed as a lecturer in Civil Engineering at Glasgow University the same year. He was promoted to Professor of Environmental Engineering in 2007 and currently holds an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship.

Recently his research has concentrated on modeling the ecology of engineered and natural microbial communities. In particular on interpreting the output from new molecular methods for characterising microbial communities in situ to estimate biodiversity and describe community assembly. His theoretical research has found wide practical application in wastewater treatment, microbial fuel cells and biofilm modeling. In addition, Prof. Sloan maintains an interest in hydrological modelling and water resources and has published on a wide variety of topics from macroscale hydrological modelling, through radionuclide transport in groundwater to modelling the evolution of snowcover in the Austrian Alps and water quality in the Himalayas.

Jump to: 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1995 | 1994
Number of items: 35.

2012

Vignaga, E., Haynes, H. , and Sloan, W.T. (2012) Quantifying the tensile strength of microbial mats grown over noncohesive sediments. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 109 (5). pp. 1155-1164. ISSN 0006-3592 (doi:10.1002/bit.24401)

Ramanan, B., Holmes, W.M. , Sloan, W.T. , and Phoenix, V.R. (2012) Investigation of nanoparticle transport inside coarse-grained geological media using magnetic resonance imaging. Environmental Science and Technology, 46 (1). pp. 360-366. ISSN 0013-936X (doi:10.1021/es2012726)

2010

Ofiteru, I. D., Lunn, M., Curtis, T. P., Wells, G. F., Criddle, C. S., Francis, C. A., and Sloan, W. T. (2010) Combined niche and neutral effects in a microbial wastewater treatment community. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107 (35). pp. 15345-15350. ISSN 0027-8424 (doi:10.1073/pnas.1000604107)

Oh, S.T., Kim, J., Premier, G.C., Lee, T.H., Kim, C., and Sloan, W.T. (2010) Sustainable wastewater treatment: How might microbial fuel cells contribute. Biotechnology Advances, 28 (6). pp. 871-881. ISSN 0734-9750 (doi:10.1016/j.biotechadv.2010.07.008)

Ramanan, B., Holmes, W.M. , Sloan, W.T. , and Phoenix, V.R. (2010) Application of Paramagnetically Tagged Molecules for Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Biofilm Mass Transport Processes. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 76 (12). pp. 4027-4036. ISSN 0099-2240 (doi:10.1128/AEM.03016-09)

Vignaga, E., Haynes, H. , Sloan, W. , Fernandes, A., Jarvis, M., Beattie, T.K., and Pheonix, V.R. (2010) Lab-cultured Biofilm Stabilization of Non-cohesive Sediments: Quantifying the Elastic Constant, k. In: International Workshop on Environmental Hydrauics, 29-30 October 2010, Valencia, Spain.

2009

Phoenix, V., Ramanan, B., and Sloan, W. (2009) Imaging biogeochemical processes with MRI: application of paramagetic tracers. In: 19th Annual VM Goldschmidt Conference, 21 June 2009, Davos, Switzerland.

Quince, C., Lanzen, A., Curtis, T.P. , Davenport, R.J., Hall, N., Head, I.M., Read, F., and Sloan, W.T. (2009) Accurate determination of microbial diversity from 454 pyrosequencing data. Nature Methods, 6 (9). 639-U27. ISSN 1548-7091 (doi:10.1038/NMETH.1361)

2008

Augustine, N., Beevers, L., and Sloan, W.T. (2008) Predicting river flows for future climates using an autoregressive multinomial logit model. Water Resources Research, 44 (7). ISSN 0043-1397

Curtis, T.P., Wallbridge, N.C., and Sloan, W. (2008) Theory, community assembly, diversity and evolution in the microbial world. In: Butlin, R. and Bridle, J. (eds.) Speciation and Patterns of Diversity. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521709637

Quince, C., Curtis, T.P. , and Sloan, W.T. (2008) The rational exploration of microbial diversity. ISME Journal, 2 . pp. 997-1006. ISSN 1751-7362 (doi:10.1038/ismej.2008.69)

Sloan, W.T., Quince, C. , and Curtis, T.P. (2008) The uncountables. In: Zengler, K. (ed.) Accessing Uncultivated Microorganisms: From the Environment to Organisms and Genomes and Back. ASM Press, Washington DC, USA. ISBN 9781555814069

2007

Woodcock, S., Van Der Gast, C.J., Bell, T., Lunn, M. , Curtis, T.P. , Head, I.M., and Sloan, W. (2007) Neutral assembly of bacterial communities. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 62 (2). pp. 171-180. ISSN 0168-6496 (doi:10.1111/j.1574-6941.2007.00379.x)

Battin, T J, Sloan, W.T. , Kjelleberg, S, Daims, H, Head, I M, and Curtis, T P (2007) Microbial landscapes: new paths to biofilm research. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 5 (1). pp. 76-81. ISSN 1740-1526 (doi:10.1038/nrmicro1556)

Sloan, W.T., Woodcock, S. , Lunn, M., Head, I.M., and Curtis, T.P. (2007) Modeling Taxa-Abundance Distributions in Microbial Communities using Environmental Sequence Data. Microbial Ecology, 53 (3). pp. 443-455. ISSN 0095-3628 (doi:10.1007/s00248-006-9141-x)

2006

Curtis, T.P., Head, I.M., Lunn, M. , Woodcock, S. , Schloss, P.D., and Sloan, W. (2006) What is the extent of prokaryotic diversity? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 361 (1475). pp. 2023-2037. ISSN 0962-8436 (doi:10.1098/rstb.2006.1921)

Woodcock, S., Curtis, T.P. , Head, I.M., Lunn, M. , and Sloan, W. (2006) Taxa-area relationships for microbes: the unsampled and the unseen. Ecology Letters, 9 (7). pp. 805-812. ISSN 1461-023X (doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00929.x)

Sloan, W., Lunn, M. , Woodcock, S. , Head, I.M., Nee, S., and Curtis, T.P. (2006) Quantifying the roles of immigration and chance in shaping prokaryote community structure. Environmental Microbiology, 8 (4). pp. 732-740. ISSN 1462-2912 (doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2005.00956.x)

Curtis, T.P., and Sloan, W. (2006) Towards the design of diversity: stochastic models for community assembly in wastewater treatment plants. Water Science and Technology, 54 (1). pp. 227-236. ISSN 0273-1223 (doi:10.2166/wst.2006.391)

2005

Curtis, T.P., and Sloan, W. (2005) Exploring microbial diversity: A vast below. Science, 309 (5739). pp. 1331-1333. ISSN 0036-8075 (doi:10.1126/science.1118176)

2004

Sloan, W., Kilsby, C.G., and Lunn, R. (2004) Incorporating topographic variability into a simple regional snowmelt model. Hydrological Processes, 18 (17). pp. 3371-3390. ISSN 0885-6087 (doi:10.1002/hyp.1501)

Lunn, M., Sloan, W. , and Curtis, T. (2004) Estimating bacterial diversity from clone libraries with flat rank abundance distributions. Environmental Microbiology, 6 (10). pp. 1081-1086. ISSN 1462-2912 (doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2004.00641.x)

Curtis, T., and Sloan, W. (2004) Prokaryotic diversity and its limits: microbial community structure in nature and implications for microbial ecology. Current Opinion in Microbiology, 7 (3). pp. 221-226. ISSN 1369-5274 (doi:10.1016/j.mib.2004.04.010)

2002

Curtis, T.P., Sloan, W. , and Scannell, J.W. (2002) Estimating prokaryotic diversity and its limits. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 99 (16). pp. 10494-10499. ISSN 0027-8424 (doi:10.1073/pnas.142680199)

Reungoat, A.F.R., and Sloan, W. (2002) Classification of components of river basins for hydrological model parameter estimation. In: Continuous River Flow Simulation: Methods, Applications and Uncertainties ; BHS national meeting CEH Wallingford 5th July 2001. British Hydrological Society, pp. 39-45. ISBN 1903741025

2001

Curtis, TP, Sloan, WT , and Scannell, JW (2001) Determining the diversity of the hyperdiverse: The theoretical limits of prokaryotic diversity at large and small scales. In: 9th International Symposium of Microbiology Ecology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Reungoat, AFJ, and Sloan, WT (2001) Classification of river networks. In: 'River Basin Management', 11-13 September, Cardiff, UK.

2000

Sloan, W. (2000) A physics-based function for modeling transient groundwater discharge at the watershed scale. Water Resources Research, 36 (1). pp. 225-241. ISSN 0043-1397 (doi:10.1029/1999WR900221)

1999

Sloan, W., and Ewen, J. (1999) Modelling long-term contaminant migration in a catchment at fine spatial and temporal scales using the UP system. Hydrological Processes, 13 (6). pp. 823-846. ISSN 0885-6087 (doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1085(19990430)13:6<823::AID-HYP759>3.0.CO;2-B)

Ewen, J., Sloan, W.T. , Kilsby, C.G., and O'Connell, P.E. (1999) UP Modelling System for large scale hydrology: deriving large-scale physically-based parameters for the Arkansas-Red River basin. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 3 (1). pp. 125-136. ISSN 1027-5606 (doi:10.5194/hess-3-125-1999)

Kilsby, C., Ewen, J., Sloan, W. , Burton, A., Fallows, C., and O'Connell, P. (1999) The UP modelling system for large scale hydrology: simulation of the Arkansas-Red River basin. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 3 (1). pp. 137-149. ISSN 1607-7938 (doi:10.5194/hess-3-137-1999)

Sloan, W. (1999) A European perspective on distributed hydrological modelling and GIS. In: DeBarry, P.A. and Quimpo, R.G. (eds.) GIS Modules and Distributed Models of the Watershed. American Society of Civil Engineers. ISBN 9780784404430

1998

Collins, R., Jenkins, A., and Sloan, W. (1998) A GIS framework for modelling nitrogen leaching from agricultural areas in the Middle Hills, Nepal. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 12 (5). pp. 479-490. ISSN 1365-8816 (doi:10.1080/136588198241761)

1995

Jenkins, A., Sloan, W. , and Cosby, B. (1995) Stream chemistry in the middle hills and high mountains of the Himalayas, Nepal. Journal of Hydrology, 166 (1-2). pp. 61-79. ISSN 0022-1694 (doi:10.1016/0022-1694(94)02600-G)

1994

Sloan, W., Jenkins, A., and Eatherall, A. (1994) A simple-model of stream nitrate concentrations in forested and deforested catchments in mid-Wales. Journal of Hydrology, 158 (1-2). pp. 61-78. ISSN 0022-1694 (doi:10.1016/0022-1694(94)90046-9)

This list was generated on Sat May 26 09:03:31 2012 BST.

Current Grants

  • EPSRC. EP/D073693/1. Advanced Research Fellowship. Jan 2007-Feb 2012. Developing theory on the formation, composition and structure of open microbial communities that can be used in engineering design. Total: £518,535. University of Glasgow (UoG) total: £518,535. PI Sloan

  • EPSRC. EP/F007868/1. Platform Grant. Apr 2008- Mar 2013. General and unifying concepts for wastewater treatment plant design. Total: £900K. UoG total £182,308. PI Sloan

  • EPSRC. EP/G028443/1. Magnetic resonance imaging of biofilm mass transport processes with gadolinium tracers. Total: £57,834. UoG total: £57,834. PI Phoenix.

  • EPSRC. EP/H019480/1. Apr 2010 –Apr 2014. The SUPERGEN Biological Fuel Cell consortium; phase 2. Total: £2.9M.  UoG total: £243,921. PI  Sloan.

  • EPSRC. EP/H009604/1. Jun 2010 – Jun 2013. Predicting the acclimatisation of microbial wastewater treatment communities as a function of the environment, random immigration, birth and death. Total: £868K. UoG total: £208,277. PI Sloan.

  • Unilever. UoG code 63571. 2010-2014. Modelling the biogeography of human associated micro-organisms. Total: £75,324. UoG total:  £75,324. PI Sloan.

  • BBSRC/Unilever. 2010-2014.The development of improved tools for the analysis of pyrosequenced metagenomics data. Total: £121,110. UoG total: £121,110. PI Quince.

  • Unilever. 2010-2014. The development and application of mathematical methods for the analysis of human relate associate microorganisms using genomics data. Total: £367,378. UoG total: £367,378. PI Quince.


Previous Grants


  • EPSRC GR/S67128/01. 2004-2007. Enhancement of Biological Treatment of Contaminated Waters by Increasing Microbial Diversity (BIOENHAN). Total: £800K. UoG total: £44,895. PI  Sloan.

  • EPSRC. EP/F013337/1. Oct 2007 –March 2009. Environmental Engineers of Tomorrow: Developing A Shared Tool Box Through Collaboration. Total: £144,078. UoG total: £25,000. PI  Sloan.

  • EPSRC. EP/H024603/1 2009-2011. Bug-free prostheses: Reducing infection risk and improving reliability. Total: £201K. PI Lunn (Strathclyde).

  • EPSRC. EP/D047943/1. Apr 2006 – Oct 2010. The SUPERGEN Biological Fuel Cells Consortium. Total: £2.1M.  UoG total: £195,825. PI Sloan.

  • NERC NE/D522211/1. 2006-2009. COMIX-Coupling biofilm diversity and ecosystem functioning: The role of communication and mixing in microbial landscapes. Total: €121,110. UoG total: £150,249. PI Sloan.

  • NERC NER/T/S/2002/00166. 2002 Scale dependent modelling of microbial communities. NERC discipline hopping fellowship. £50,000. PI Sloan.

Current PhD Students

Elisa Vignaga. 2007-2011. GRPE Scholarship.

Melanie Schirmer. 2010-2014. Unilever Studentship. 2nd Supervisor.

Frances Naji. 2011-2014. EPSRC Studentship.

Xiaoming Chen. 2010-2014. EPSRC DTA Studentship. 2nd Supervisor.

Ben Nicholas. 2010-2014. 2nd Supervisor

Rick Phoenix. 2010-2014. James Watt Scholarship. 2nd Supervisor

Siding Luo. 2010-2014. EPSRC Studentship. 2nd Supervisor

Henry Chan. 2004-2011. Part-time.

James Minto. 2010-2013. EPSRC DTA.

Marnie Norris. 2010-2013. Lord Kelvin-Adam Smith Studentship.

Kazi Hassan. 2011-2014. NERC Scholarship.


Previous PhD Students

Anne Ruengoat. 2002-2005. James Watt Scholarship. Awarded PhD Oct 2005.

Stephen Woodcock. 2004-2007. EPSRC Scholarship. Awarded PhD Nov 2007.

Lyndsay Beevers. 2000-2004. EPSRC Scholarship. Awarded PhD 2004. 2nd Supervisor.

Baheerathan Ramanan. 2007-2011. Lord Kelvin-Adam Smith Studentship. Awarded PhD Sept 2011.

   

Current Postdoctoral Research Assistants

Dr Mary Lunn, Statistician.

Dr Jillian Cuoto, Molecular Biologist.

Dr Joanna Davies, Statistician & Geneticist.

Dr Susithra Lakshmanan, Chemical Engineer.


Previous Postdoctoral Research Assistants

Dr Stephen Woodcock, Statistician.

Dr Sung Taek Oh, Chemical Engineer.

Mechanics I

Environmental Impact Assessment I

Water Resources in Africa Case Study V