About Us

We are an interdisciplinary team of biologists, chemists, and engineers at Queen’s University working together to investigate the causes, impacts, and solutions to aquatic pollution.

Our Mission

To understand the fate and effects of chemicals in the aquatic environment to inform sound public policy decisions — a mission motivated by a respect for nature and a desire to conserve biodiversity on Earth. By conducting large-scale field experiments, we seek to answer policy-relevant questions on a broad range of emerging contaminants in freshwater ecosystems.

Our Director

The QE3 Research Group is directed by Professor Diane Orihel, Associate Professor and National Scholar in Aquatic Ecotoxicology at Queen’s University. Dr. Orihel’s approaches aquatic ecotoxicology from a foundation of limnology and ecosystem ecology. Her diverse research career has included the study of nutrient cycling and algal blooms, mercury contamination of food webs, environmental fate of flame retardants, toxicity of contaminants from oil sands mining, oil spills into freshwater ecosystems, and plastic pollution in the environment. Dr. Orihel received the international Yensch-Schindler Award from the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography for her contributions to aquatic research and society.

Location and Affiliations