Cassandra is a Research Fellow at QAEHS, joining the group in 2019. She completed her PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2014 where her research focussed on determining how humans are exposed to flame retardants from their indoor environments. Following her PhD she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Environment and Climate Change Canada where she was the principal researcher for the Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling (GAPS) Network, researching chemicals of concern in the atmosphere. Following her Postdoctoral Fellowship she worked for the Oil Sands Monitoring Program in Canada, assisting with facilitating a multi-stakeholder funding program for assessing environmental impact of Oil Sands operations, before returning to Australia in 2019.

At QAEHS she is the project lead investigating human exposure to microplastics and developing new methods for detecting micro and nanoplastics in human matrices. Her other research interests include the impact of tyre road wear particles and the chemical additives they contain on urban water ways, and developing novel biomonitoring methods for assessing human exposure to chemicals of concern (e.g. silicone wristbands and breast implants).

Featured projects Duration
Human Exposure and Accumulation of Plastics
QAEHS HDR Student Project
Development of Specialised Hyphenated Methodologies for Quantifying New Halogenated Plastic Materials
QAEHS HDR Student Project
Developing a Method for the Quantification of Antifouling Paint Particles in the Marine Environment Using Pyrolysis-gas Chromatography-mass Spectrometry
QAEHS HDR Student Project
Non-Targeted High-Resolution Mass Spectrometric Characterisation of Highly Mobile and Highly Persistent Chemicals
QAEHS HDR Student Project
Characterisation and quantification of nanoplastics in the environment using pyrolysis gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry
QAEHS HDR Student Project
Assessing Dietary Exposure to Microplastics
QAEHS HDR Student Project
Evaluating infant oral exposure to micro and nanoplastics
QAEHS HDR Student Project
Where do tyre particles go? Tracking tyre-related microplastic pollution in the Australian environment
QAEHS HDR Student Project
Microplastics in Air
QAEHS HDR Student Project
Developing Protocols to Measure Plastic Chemicals in Human Brain, Blood and Urine
Minderoo Foundation
Microplastics: Long Term Effects of Plastic Additive Chemicals on Marine Organisms
MicroLEACH - The Research Council of Norway
20192024
Identification of Chemical and Biological Determinants, and their Sources, and Strategies to Promote Healthier Homes in Europe
National Health and Medical Research Council
Human Exposure and Fate of Micro and Nanoplastics
QAEHS HDR Student Project