Heather Vanderlip

Master’s Student, Biology

I am a Master’s student at Queen’s University in the department of Biology. I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph in 2017, majoring in Zoology. It was there that I fed my passion for biodiversity and became increasingly aware of all the problems that species on our planet face today, especially with regards to pollution and conservation. I soon realized that one of the best ways for me to contribute to the conservation work done worldwide was through research, so I joined QE3! I am excited to be working on contaminants found in the eggs of different populations of seabirds, as well as investigating ingestion of microplastics in polar bears through analysis of their feces. It is my hope that my research will contribute to the knowledge about micro plastic ingestion by vertebrates, as well as to the broader picture of arctic toxicology and implications for the conservation of these species and ecosystems. I look forward to working with the QE3 team and bringing our research into the public eye!