Contaminants of Concern for Human and Environmental Health

Speaker

Nancy Denslow is a professor in the Department of Physiological Sciences and in the Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology at the University of Florida. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Nancy has pioneered the use of molecular technologies for environmental toxicology especially focusing on high throughput in vitro assays, biomarker development and toxicogenomics approaches for evaluating contaminants of emerging concern. She has specialized in assessing the effects of organochlorine pesticides and endocrine disruptors that are found at relatively high levels in the environment. Nancy has over 250 peer-reviewed publications. She has received several awards for her research including the Founders Award from the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. In addition to this society, she is also a member of the Society of Toxicology, and the Association of Biomolecular Research Facilities, a society devoted to the “OMICS” technologies. Nancy’s research has received funding from EPA, NSF, USGS and NIH.

Co-Host

Ruth Sofield is a Professor of environmental toxicology and chemistry in the College of the Environment. She received her PhD and MS in Environmental Science and Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. Ruth’s research group focuses on the effects of water and air pollution. Their current projects include the aquatic toxicity of microplastic and tire wear particles, and the use of moss as a biomonitoring tool for particulate matter. Ruth is a member of the Puget Sound Partnership Science Panel and the President of the Pacific Northwest Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

Co-host

Tracy Collier received his PhD in Fisheries Sciences from the University of Washington. He has worked for over 45 years as a toxicologist, with more than 35 of those years spent at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, where he served as the director of a science division that employed up to 100 people, covering several disciplines, including environmental toxicology, analytical chemistry, harmful algal blooms, and watershed processes. He has over 175 scientific publications, and currently is an affiliate faculty at Western.