Project Team

Prof Stuart Harrad

 Stuart will coordinate and lead the ELEVATE project. Stuart has considerable expertise in a wide range of aspects of research into the environmental fate and behaviour of POPs with a particular focus on BFRs. He has published 120 papers in peer reviewed journals and has a current H-Index of 43. He also coordinates another EPA research project on POPs, the WAFER project, and two EU funded Marie Curie Initial Training Network projects, The A-TEAM and ELUTE projects both of whom address various aspects of the environmental fate and behaviour of BFRs and related contaminants.

Dr Mohamed Abdallah

Mohamed will have responsibility for the measurement of concentrations of HBCDs, PBDEs and PFOSs in the dust, water, air and breast milk samples collected in ELEVATE. He will also provide training and support to the PhD student working on the ELEVATE project. He has wide experience in applying various mass spectrometric techniques for the analysis of trace levels of environmental contaminants in various environmental matrices in particular HBCDD, PBDEs and TBBP-A. He has published 39 papers in peer reviewed journals and has a current H-index of 20. He also works on another EPA funded research project on POPs, WAFER, and was PI on the Marie Curie fellowship ADAPT.

Dr Marie Coggins

 will have responsibility for the assessment of POP- BFRs and PFOS in air, dust and water samples from Irish indoor environments, and for the assessment of concentrations of PBDEs, HBCDDs and PFOS in human breast milk. Marie will supervise and support the project PhD student, who will be based at NUI, Galway. She has extensive experience in the field of exposure science, having worked in Industry, academia and research. She has 16 peer reviewed research publications and has a current H index of 8. She is also working on another EPA funded project evaluating the impact of energy efficient retrofits on indoor air pollutant concentrations in domestic dwellings

Nina Wemken

‌Nina is the PhD student working on ELEVATE.  Nina has a BSc in Forensic Science and Analysis and recently graduated with a Masters of Toxicology from the National University of Ireland, Galway. Research data collected for her MSc research was presented at the 9th Neuroscience Ireland conference in 2015. Nina will recruit project participants in ELEVATE and will collect and analyse samples of dust, air, water and breast milk for the target POPs of interest to ELEVATE. Nina will also help with project communication activities.

Dr Dan Drage

Dan will have responsibility for the measurement of concentrations of HBCDs, PBDEs and PFOSs in the dust, water, air and breast milk samples collected in ELEVATE. He will also provide training and support to the PhD student working on the ELEVATE project. He has wide experience in developing analytical methodologies for the analysis of trace levels of environmental contaminants in various environmental matrices in particular HBCDD, PBDEs and other POPs. Dan’s work has mainly focussed on human and environmental exposure to POPs. He has published 8 papers in peer reviewed journals and has a current H-index of 4. He also works on another EPA funded research project on POPs, WAFER.