People

Elsie Sunderland

Ph.D., Environmental Toxicology

Professor, Harvard University

Elsie Sunderland is an Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard. Her research group studies the biogeochemistry of global contaminants. Her research includes developing models at a variety of scales, ranging from ecosystems to global applications, to help characterize the impacts of past and future changes in climate and environmental releases of contaminants on human and ecological health.

Publications

Schartup, A.T., Thackray, C.P., Qureshi, A., Dassuncao, C., Gillespie, K., Hanke, A. & Sunderland, E.M. (2019). Climate change and overfishing increase neurotoxicant in marine predators. Nature, 2019. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1468-9 link

“Our energy choices have ramifications for many other types of pollutants,” said Elsie Sunderland, Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at Harvard University and Nereus Program collaborator.

November 26, 2016 | Climate ChangeFisheries

Colin Thackray (Harvard University) and Elsie Sunderland (Harvard University) are co-authors with others on a new publication that models how climate change and overfishing are contributing to the bioaccumulation of neurotoxin methylmercury (MeHg) in top ocean predators, some of which are commonly consumed species of seafood.

August 7, 2019 | Climate ChangeFisheries

Leah Burrows (Science and Technology Communications Officer) of the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) wrote an article about Elsie Sunderland’s and Colin Thackray’s recent publication on methylmercury bioaccumulation in marine predators for The Harvard Gazette.

An updated summary of Colin Thackray (Harvard University), Elsie Sunderland (Harvard University), et al.’s paper that models how climate change and overfishing are contributing to the bioaccumulation of neurotoxin methylmercury (MeHg) in top ocean predators.