Imogen Bailes
PhD studentProfile
I am a PhD student funded by the NERC ECORISC CDT, researching persistent organic pollutants in UK and Antarctic animals.
I completed my undergraduate degree in Environmental Geoscience at Durham University before undertaking an MSc by Research also at Durham, investigating nitrogen isotopes in seaweed as a means to monitor sources of nitrogen pollution.
Current Research
As part of my PhD I am investigating the concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in UK and Antarctic animals, including chemicals like so-called "forever chemicals" PFAS, PCBs and flame retardants. I'll be looking at both legacy and emerging contaminants and to do this I'll be using established targeted methods and also developing non-targeted methods, which is where we look for all possible chemicals in a sample.
I'm also partnered with Defra, Cefas and BAS, working with some great researchers who form part of my supervisory team.