Niladri Basu

Degrees

BSc 1999 (Queen’s)
MSc 2002 (British Columbia)
PhD 2005 (McGill)

Short Bio

Professor Nil Basu holds a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Environmental Health Sciences at McGill University where he is jointly appointed in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences and the School of Human Nutrition. Professor Basu also holds appointments in McGill’s School of the Environment and the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, as well as an adjunct professorship at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. The goal of Professor Basu's research is to design, validate, and apply innovative and sustainable approaches to address the most pressing societal concerns over toxic chemicals in our environment. Professor Basu’s research is multidisciplinary (bridges environmental quality and human health), inter-sectoral (most projects driven by stakeholder needs, notably government and communities), and driven by environmental justice concerns. Professor Basu has assumed national and international leadership positions to bring together diverse teams to tackle grand challenges in the field (e.g., chemicals management, mercury pollution, electronic waste). Professor Basu’s research activities are situated at the interface of science and policy with notable involvements with the UN Minamata Convention, Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan, and the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. His team’s work has been supported by more than $40M in research funding, resulted in >200 peer-reviewed papers, and afforded training opportunities to over 100 students including 18 postdoctoral fellows and 12 PhD students.

Awards and Recognitions

2013-2023 – Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Environmental Health Sciences
2021 – OECD Cooperative Research Program (CRP) Fellowship
2013 – Excellence in Teaching, UM School of Public Health
2009 – Environmental Health Sciences Communication Fellow
2008 – Telluride Faculty Scholar

Active Affiliations

Editor, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Consultant, UN Minamata Convention Secretariat
Lead, AMAP Mercury Assessment – Human Health
Board of Directors, Pacific Basin Consortium for Environment and Health
Member, Science Committee, Government of Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan (CMP)
Commissioner, Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health
Member, UN Global Mercury Partnership
Member, Science Council, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC)
Member, McGill Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE)

Research Interests

The objective of Prof. Basu’s research program is to design, validate, and apply innovative and sustainable approaches to address the most pressing societal concerns over toxic chemicals in our environment. To realize lasting translational impact, the team’s research program investigates and integrates data across species in a comparative manner (i.e. humans along with fish, birds, marine and terrestrial mammals), scales responses across multiple tiers of biological organization in an integrative fashion (e.g. cell --> individual --> ecosystem), and is driven by stakeholder concerns and motivated by environmental justice.

Two major projects that Prof. Basu helps lead include the EcoToxChip Project (funded by Genome Canada) and GEOHealth-West Africa (funded by US NIH-Fogarty and Canada's IDRC).

The ultimate goal of Prof. Basu’s program is to conduct excellent research in the broader fields of environmental science (ecotoxicology and genomics) and public health (exposure science and epidemiology) such that outputs may be effectively disseminated to diverse stakeholders (e.g., students, policy makers, scientists, community partners) and lead to public health actions and policies that contribute to improve environmental quality and human health in Canada and internationally.

Current Research

A) MERCURY POLLUTION, with a focus on global policy and environmental justice;
B) ECOTOXICITY TESTING IN THE 21st CENTURY, with a focus on developing innovative tools to address new regulations, economic realities, and concerns over animal testing;
C) ENVIRONMENTAL GLOBAL HEALTH, with a focus on capacity building, electronic waste (e-waste) recycling and artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM);
D) DRIED BLOODSPOTS & EXPOSURE SCIENCE with a focus on the development, validation, and application of methods to measure essential and toxic elements

For more information: http://basulab.weebly.com/projects.html

Courses

Publications

View a list of current publications