Rate My Professor Anthony Umeh

Dr. Anthony Umeh is a Research Fellow at the Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER) and Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Science, College of Engineering, Science and Environment at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He holds a PhD in Environmental Remediation from the University of Newcastle, a Master of Science from Lancaster University, England, and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Zoology from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. Dr. Umeh's expertise encompasses emerging contaminants, contaminant fate and transport modelling, adsorption-based technologies for remediation, contaminant bioaccessibility and bioavailability, human and ecological health risk assessments, soil geochemistry, and environmental statistics. He leads projects on in-situ immobilisation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in soil and groundwater, PFAS transport funded by industry, and has experience with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) risk assessments in former gasworks site soils. With collaborators, he published the first machine learning application for PFOS sorption prediction in tropical and temperate soils.

Since 2017, Dr. Umeh has authored over 10 first-author peer-reviewed articles and two book chapters. Highlighted publications include 'Residual hydrophobic organic contaminants in soil: Are they a barrier to risk-based approaches for managing contaminated land?' (Environment International, 2017), 'Time-Dependent Remobilisation of Non-Extractable Benzo[a]pyrene Residues in Contrasting Soils: Effects of Aging, Spiked Concentration, and Soil Properties' (Environmental Science & Technology, 2018), and 'In vitro gastrointestinal mobilization and oral bioaccessibility of PAHs in contrasting soils and associated cancer risks: Focus on PAH nonextractable residues' (Environment International, 2019). He co-authored the book 'Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances: Occurrence, toxicity and remediation of PFAS' (2025) and chapters on PFAS transport and desorption. In 2020, he received the Distinguished Global Talent award from the Australian Government. Dr. Umeh presented an invited talk on PFAS at the FAO Global Symposium on Soils and Water (2023), spoke at international conferences, serves as peer reviewer and guest editor for environmental journals, and is affiliated with societies including Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Asia Pacific. His research minimizes uncertainties in contaminant behaviour, aiding risk-based site management.