Tanya Paige Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Australasia 2021

Tanya Paige

Tanya is a PhD student within the Aquatic Environmental Stress research group (AQUEST) at RMIT in collaboration with the National Measurement Institute (NMI). Her work involves examining the spatial distribution of emerging contaminants across aquatic ecosystems of the Melbourne region. She is investigating PFAS and fragrances (e.g., synthetic musks and terpenes), as more data on the occurrence of these compounds is needed to understand their impact on the local aquatic environment. Tanya is currently working on developing sampling methods using aquatic passive samplers, alongside analytical methods using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for fragrance compounds. Tanya has a background in both organic synthesis and analytical chemistry and her professional interests include chemistry, analytical method development, and environmental health. She completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours (Deans Scholars), majoring in applied chemistry at RMIT. Her Honours project in 2017 involved the synthesis of a library of small organic molecules as potential Alzheimer’s disease treatments. In 2018, she worked as a research assistant for the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) group at RMIT, which involved performing solid phase extractions (SPE) on aquatic PFAS samples and developing analytical methods using GC-MS/MS for the simultaneous detection of legacy POPs including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs).