Dr. Lisa Melymuk

Dr. Lisa Melymuk completed her Honours Bachelor of Science in Earth Sciences at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Canada, followed by a M.Sc. in Geography at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada in 2007. In 2012, she completed her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Toronto, under the supervision of Prof. Miriam Diamond. Her Ph.D. focus was on sources and transport of toxic compounds in urban environments. She joined RECETOX as a post-doctoral researcher in 2012.

Her research focusses on linking external sources of toxic compounds and human exposure. Her work is currently focusing on levels of toxic compounds in indoor micro-environments, especially flame retardants and chemicals used in personal care products. Specific topics are: understanding indoor dust as an exposure pathway and method of source identification, optimizing indoor sampling techniques for dust and air sampling, improving characterization of passive air samplers, and linking exposure pathways with human biomonitoring. Related research topics are chemical prioritization strategies, relying on existing data combined with statistical methods, GIS and meta-analysis to identify toxic compounds of the highest concern for human exposure.

She is an author of 30 scientific publications with over 1600 citations, and has an H-index of 22. She has on-going projects with researchers at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) and Environment and Climate Change Canada on air sampling techniques, and with University of Toronto and Indiana University on characterization of toxic compounds in indoor environments and e-waste processing sites.

She also teaches the course of Environmental Chemistry.