Alumni | Bench to Communities

Past Graduate Students

Emmanuel Bourdet

MSc student in Occupational and Environmental Health

(co-supervision)

Emmanuel started a master’s degree in Occupational and Environmental Health at the Université de Montréal in January 2021 under the supervision of Marc-André Verner and Élyse Caron-Beaudoin. During his research, Emmanuel investigated the associations between oil and gas activity and indoor radon concentrations in the EXPERIVA study.

Emmanuel holds a nursing degree from the Université de Bretagne Sud and the Centre Hospitalier de Vanne (France). In addition, Emmanuel is a certified registered nurse anesthetist (Master's degree, Université de la Réunion). Emmanuel has been practicing nursing in France and Île de la Réunion since 2013.

Yifan Wu

Master of Environmental Science student

Yifan started her Master of Environmental Science program at the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences (University of Toronto Scarborough) in September 2020. As part of this professional program, Yifan measured the levels of oxidative stress biomarkers in a cohort of pregnant women living near unconventional natural gas activity in Northeastern British Columbia.

Yifan holds a BSc from the University of Toronto, where she graduated with a Pharmacology and Toxicology Specialist Program and a Global Health Major.

Claudelle Dubeau

MSc student in Epidemiology (co-supervision)

Claudelle started a master’s degree in Epidemiology at Université Laval in September 2017 under Mélanie Lemire's supervision. Claudelle graduated in 2021. Her thesis project looked at the quality of nutrition among children and youth in four First Nations communities in Quebec. It focuses on the correlation between diet quality and exposure to contaminants in ultra-processed foods.

Claudelle’s interest in global and environmental health stems primarily from her experiences abroad and her love of nature and the outdoors.

Past Interns and Undergraduate Research Assistants

Bénédicte Ngwabika

Intern (2020)

During her internship with Élyse Caron-Beaudoin, Bénédicte conducted a literature review on environmental injustice in the context of unconventional natural gas exploitation by hydraulic fracturing. She graduated from with a MSc degree in public health from the Université de Montréal.

Hélène Akpo

Intern (2020)

During her internship with Élyse Caron-Beaudoin, Hélène worked on identifying in the scientific literature studies which investigated the toxicity of hydraulic fracturing chemicals using cellular or animal models. As part of this systematic review, Hélène also conducted the data extraction of the selected studies using the online platform HAWC.

Amrita Subramanian

Undergraduate Research Assistant (2021)

Amrita has just completed her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Toronto Scarborough with a major in Health Studies - Population Health stream. During her time at the From Bench to Communities Lab, she worked on estimating the exposure of pregnant women who participated in the EXPERIVA study to particulate matter. To conduct her research project, Amrita used publicly available data from air quality monitoring stations across Northeastern British Columbia. Using a geomapping software, she was able to link each EXPERIVA study participants to the closest air monitoring stations and estimate their exposure to this type of chemicals for the duration of their pregnancy. Amrita's research was funded through a Research Competitiveness Funds from the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Tamera Panjalingam

Undergraduate Research Assistant (2021)

Tamera completed her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Toronto Scarborough double majoring in Molecular Biology, Immunology, and Disease, and Health Studies with an emphasis on Population Health. During her time at the From Bench to Communities Lab, she worked on a toxicological systematic review surrounding the health effects associated with fracking. More specifically, she conducted bias assessments for all the studies included in the systemic review.

Anna Thompson

Undergraduate Research Assistant (2022)

During her time at the From Bench to Communities Lab, Anna worked on a toxicological systematic review surrounding the health effects associated with unconventional oil and gas. More specifically, she conducted a quality control of the extracted data of the studies included in the systemic review.