Kirsten completed a Bachelor of Forensic Science degree at Griffith University in 2017. After graduating she worked at Viatris in Brisbane, with the focus of the site being manufacturing and testing of oral solid dose generic pharmaceuticals. She spent four years in the QC Finished Products team conducting testing on active ingredients for qualitative and quantitative analysis. An additional year was spent in the QA Cleaning Validation team verifying the chemical effectiveness of cleaning procedures for industrial manufacturing equipment. This work included sample prep, extraction, running instruments and analysing data under strict time constraints with a high level of quality expected by national and international bodies.
She has extensive experience in sample prep for various analytical laboratory techniques and is knowledgeable about a wide range of instrumentation.
In 2023 Kirsten joined QAEHS to assist with work on wastewater projects for ACIC monitoring licit and illicit drug levels, and other projects for the Department of Environmental Science to detect PFAS in food and garden organics.