Nil Basu obtained his BSc (Environmental Life Sciences) from Queen’s University, MSc (Animal Physiology) from the University of British and PhD (Wildlife Biology) from McGill. He spent two years as a NSERC Postdoctoral Scholar with Environment Canada prior to starting his academic career at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. In 2012 he returned to McGill where he holds a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Environmental Health Sciences. The goal of Dr. Basu's research is to take an ecosystem approach to community, occupational, and environmental health whereby toxicological evidence is collected, scrutinized, and compared from across humans, wildlife, and ecosystems. The work has resulted in >120 peer-reviewed papers, been supported by >40 grants totaling >$30 million, and facilitated mentorship to >70 trainees. Dr. Basu is active internationally in terms of, for example, organizing dozens of scientific and stakeholder meetings, serving as Editor for key journals in the field of environmental toxicology and health, and consulting with notable institutions including WHO, UNEP, Environment Canada, and U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The objective of Dr. Basu's program is to research, develop and apply ecosystem-based approaches to address key problems in the environmental health sciences. The focus is on applying environmental toxicology and exposure assessment to increase understanding of risks associated with contaminants arising from the extraction of natural resources. Key to this approach is the ability to scrutinize and integrate data across species in a comparative manner (i.e. humans along with fish, birds, marine and terrestrial mammals) and to scale responses across multiple tiers of biological organization in an integrative fashion (e.g. cell --> individual --> ecosystem). In doing so, our program has developed multi-disciplinary research and communication skills that enable us to engage with and link together ecological scientists, biomedical researchers, and human health practitioners. The ultimate goal of our program is to conduct excellent research in the broader fields of ecosystem health (environmental toxicology) and human 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.