UKEMS Young Scientist of the Year Award 2022: Helena Reinardy
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- May 19, 2022
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The United Kingdom Mutagen Society is delighted to announce Dr Helena Reinardy as the recipient of this year’s Young Scientist Award. Helena will be accepting the award and presenting her lecture at the 2022 UKEMS Annual Meeting at the Royal Hall, Harrogate in July. This prestigious biennial award will be presented to a UKEMS member who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of environmental mutagenesis.
Dr Helena Reinardy is a marine biologist and ecotoxicologist with experience in biology of fish and marine invertebrates. For the past 10 years, she has researched the complex interaction between organisms and their changing environment. Beginning with her undergraduate studies in the University of St. Andrews, she went on for masters and PhD studies in fish ecotoxicology in Plymouth University. She undertook her first post-doc in Bermuda Institute of Ocean sciences before cooling down in a second post-doc position in the University Centre in Svalbard, and finally returning to the UK and joining the Scottish Association for Marine Sciences in 2018.
Her work involves studying climatic shifts such as increasing temperatures, reduction in pH, altered oxygen content in the ocean, as well as the presence of contaminants and pollutants, that make up multiple-level stressors affecting organisms in the ocean. She also has experience with a range of environmentally-relevant contaminants and stressors. This work includes genetic and epigenetic changes to molecular toxicology, physiology, behaviour, reproduction, and survival, including the vulnerability and resilience of different marine species to DNA damage when exposed to contaminants and stressors in the water.
Working closely with partners and stakeholders from industry, governmental regulators, and national and international research sectors, she also lectures in Aquaculture and Marine Pollution at the University of the Highlands and Islands. In addition, she is affiliated to the University Centre in Svalbard as an Associate Professor in the Arctic Technology Department.