Prof. Kathy Lewis, BSc, PhD, FIAP, MISEP
Professor of Agricultural Chemistry
Email: k.a.lewis@herts.ac.uk; kathy.lewis18@googlemail.com
Kathy is an agri-environmental chemist who joined the University in 1995 and established AERU soon after. Kathy became a Professor in 2014. She is now (almost) retired working part-time within AERU.
Kathy's main areas of interest include environmental management of agriculture, horticulture and land-use, in particular environmental pollution from chemical inputs and the impacts arising from agricultural processes taking a whole farm perspective. Historically, Kathy's work covered a wide spectrum of topics including pesticides, nutrients, waste and resources and biodiversity, particularly with respect to climate change and rural development. She now focus’s just on pesticides and their risk assessment.
Kathy is a Fellow of the Institute of Analysts and Programmers (FIAP) and a Member of the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (MISEP - formerly the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment). She is also the UK Editor of the Elsevier scientific journal ‘Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment’.
Qualifications
Kathy's first degree in environmental chemistry with computer science was awarded by the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA), and her PhD in agricultural best practice and was awarded by the University of Hertfordshire.
Previous employment
Before joining the University of Hertfordshire, Kathy spent 23 years at Warren Spring Laboratory and 1 year in Industry working as an Environmental Manager.
Selected projects
- Development of the UK Pesticide Load Indicator
- Management and development of AERU’s agricultural databases
- Nitrate accounting tools for the Poole Harbour nutrient management scheme
- Assessment of reduction in environmental burdens through targeted measures
- Effective approaches to environmental labelling of food products
Recent publications
- Warner, D.J., Davies, M., Hipps, N., Tzilivakis, J., Lewis, K.A. and Fountain, M. (2026) Integrated weed management reduces the environmental impact of urban amenity weed control. Weed Science. In press.
- Tzilivakis, J., Lewis, K.A., Kennedy, M.C., Ridley, L. & Garthwaite, D.G. (2026). The UK pesticide load indicator: development toward a policy tool. Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part B: 1-18. [DOI].
- Lewis, K.A. & Tzilivakis, J. (2025). Pesticide environmental indicators and the need to minimise uncertainty. environmental SCIENTIST, 35.2: 68-75. [Download].
- Tzilivakis, J., Taylor, J.L., Green, A., Warner, D.J & Lewis, K.A. (2024). A methodological review of UK food ecolabels. Final report. Prepared for the Consortium for Labelling for the Environment, Animal welfare, and Regenerative farming (CLEAR) by the Agriculture and Environment Research Unit (AERU), University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. [Download].
- Badawy, M.H., Murnane, D., Lewis, K.A. & Morgan, N. (2024). The effect of formulation composition and adjuvant type on difenoconazole dislodgeable foliar residue. . Journal of Environmental Science & Health, Part B, 1–11. DOI.
- Veldkamp, A.. Li, Y., Alignier, A.M., Audet, P., Bajocco, S., Chen, X., Cheng, Y., Drinkwater, L.E., Lewis, K.A., Petit, S., Saggar, S., Toyota, K. & Zheng X. (2023). How to get your paper published in 'Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment'. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 359: 108687. DOI [Editorial].
Prof. Kathy Lewis's extended publications list.
