Kristin Schirmer
Head of Department of Environmental Toxicology, Eawag - Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
Prof. Kristin Schirmer is a cell biologist and environmental toxicologist, advancing cellular models to understand the impact of chemicals and other stressors on fish as important part of aquatic ecosystems. She learned her trade of fish cell culture in the laboratory of Professor Niels Bols at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, where she did her PhD. She then moved on to two postdoctoral positions, with the second one bringing her to the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, Germany. She established an independent junior research group there, which grew into the Department of Cell Toxicology. Since 2008, she is head of the Department of Environment Toxicology at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, where she continues her research on cellular models with a strong focus on building strategies that aid in the reduction and replacement of fish in chemical screening and environmental risk assessment and in safe-by-design chemicals and materials.