Louise Heathwaite

In 2004 she was elected as Vice-President of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS). In 2015, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in recognition of the distinguished contribution she has made to catchment science and to science-policy engagement. In 2017 Heathwaite became the first woman to be elected President of the Freshwater Biological Association (FBA).

In July 2021 Heathwaite accepted a ministerial appointment as Chair of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Science Advisory Council, which provides expert advice to the ’Defra Chief Scientific Adviser and helps guide Defra’s scientific priorities and planning. In April 2022 she was appointed to the UK Cabinet Office's Geospatial Commission as an independent commissioner. She was Chief Scientific Adviser to the Scottish Government on Rural Affairs, Food and the Environment from 2012-2017 and was a Council member (ex-officio) on the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) from 2012-2017, prior to being appointed to the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) NERC Council from 2018-2021. Heathwaite served on Defra's Science Advisory Council from 2011-17. In December 2023 she was appointed as the Executive Chair of NERC.

Heathwaite was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday honours 2018 for services to scientific research and scientific advice to government. On receiving the honour she said, “I love trying to work out what makes things tick and working independently, so research was the only career for me. More so, I want science to be useful and I have been very lucky to have had the opportunity to show how science can help with government policy.”

Career and research

Heathwaite graduated with a 1st Class Honours degree in Environmental Science from the University of East Anglia in 1982 and was awarded a PhD on Wetland Hydrochemistry from the University of Bristol in 1987.

Heathwaite joined the Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield in 1990 becoming Professor in 1998. In 2004 she moved to Lancaster University to set up and Direct the interdisciplinary Centre for Sustainable Water Management that would eventually become part of the Lancaster Environment Centre. In 2018, she was appointed Cross-Faculty Associate Dean for Research at Lancaster University and was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) in 2019.

A key element of Heathwaite's research is the concept of Critical Source Areas which can be modelled to evaluate diffuse pollution risk. These models have been used in creating water policy including the EU Water Framework Directive, Defra's Catchment Sensitive Farming project and the work of The Rivers Trust). Heathwaite held a position on the Board of Trustees of the Eden River Trust from 2008-12.

Heathwaite chaired an independent review for the Scottish Funding Council of the Scottish research pooling initiative which reported its results in September 2019.