Patrick Smeets PhD MSc

Patrick Smeets is a Senior Scientific Researcher in microbiological water quality and health, with over 20 years’ experience in the drinking water sector. He specialises in quantitative microbiological risk analysis and applies this expertise in Dutch and international water safety projects. Besides drinking water, this includes water reuse, bathing water, irrigation, and food and soft drink industry projects. Patrick coordinates the microbial safety theme in the Joint Research Programme of KWR and the water utilities. He works on improving the legally required quantitative risk analysis of the Dutch water utilities. An important part of this involves determining the effectiveness of treatment processes in removing pathogenic microorganisms. He also advises for the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on guidelines for safe drinking water and safe water (re)use in food production and processing. At Utrecht University, Patrick teaches the Drinking Water and Sanitation course in the Water Science Management Master’s programme at the Geosciences Faculty. In the European context, he worked on various research projects, such as MicroRisk (Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, QMRA), PREPARED (climate change risks, water cycle safety plans), TRUST (risk management in the urban water cycle), Water4India (improving safety of water supply in rural India), AquaNES (Demonstrating synergies in combined natural and engineered processes for water treatment systems), and STOP-IT (Strategic, Tactical, Operational Protection of water Infrastructure against cyber-physical Threats).