Dr. Holly Barrett will join the University of Toronto Scarborough as an Assistant Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Health in July 2026, with appointments in the Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences and the Department of Chemistry.
Originally from St. John’s, Newfoundland, Holly earned a Joint Honours Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Biochemistry at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where she conducted analytical environmental chemistry research under the supervision of Christina Bottaro. She then moved to Toronto for her graduate studies, earning a PhD in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Toronto under the supervision of Hui Peng. Her doctoral research, supported by an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral (CGS-D), focused on identifying bioactive environmental contaminants using non-targeted high-resolution mass spectrometry and bioanalytical tools. Her work integrated analytical chemistry, toxicology, and chemical biology to understand how complex environmental chemical mixtures interact with biological systems, including mammalian, bacterial, and fish models, to cause adverse health effects. Her research has involved collaborations with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and academic teams nationally and internationally.
Prior to joining UTSC, Holly served as a Scientist in the Toxicology Section of the Centre of Forensic Sciences at the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General. In this role, she led the analysis of human biological samples for drugs and toxins in medicolegal investigations and developed expertise at the interface of human pharmacology, toxicology, and analytical chemistry.
At the University of Toronto Scarborough, Professor Barrett’s research program will focus on exposome science and environmental disease-driver discovery. Her group will apply non-targeted multi-omics, chemical-protein interaction approaches, and experimental toxicology to identify previously unrecognized environmental contaminants and to elucidate their roles in human disease.
Holly is excited to return to the University of Toronto to begin her independent research career. She is committed to fostering a welcoming, equitable, diverse, and inclusive research environment and to mentoring trainees from a wide range of backgrounds.
