Analytical environmental chemistry.

My research centres on the development of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy, with the specific objective to understand environmental processes at the molecular-level. My research program can be categorized into three main areas: the first places specific emphasis on the structural categories of carbon in the terrestrial and aquatic pools, their role in the global carbon cycle, and in the associations, fate and transport of organic contaminants and heavy metals. The second strives to understand the biochemical response of living systems to their changing environment, with the aim to “interpret” the metabolic fingerprint as an indicator of environmental stress and exposure. The third focus concerns the fundamental development of novel NMR approaches/technology and has evolved into a central component of my research since it is critical to efficiently address the previous two key research areas.

• Royal Society of Chemistry’s Horizon Prize (2021)
• University of Toronto - Research Excellence Faculty Scholar (2018)
• CSC W.A.E. McBryde Medal (2011)
• UTSC Principal’s Research Award (2010)
• CSC Fred Beamish Award (2010)
• RSC Joseph Black Award and Medal (2010)
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2010)
• Royal Society of Chemistry / Society for Environmental and Toxicology and Chemistry – Environmental Science Award (2009)
• CNC/IUPAC Travel Award (2008)
• Ontario Early Researcher Award (2008)

• Tian Z,  Zhao H, Peter K.T, Gonzalez M,  Wetzel J,  Wu C, Hu X, Pratt J, Mudrock E, Hettinger R, Cortina A.E., Biswas R, Kock FVC, Soong R, Jenne A, Du B, Hou F, He H, Lundeen R, Gabreath R, Sutton R, Dodd M.C., Simpson AJ, McIntyre JK, Kolodziej EP, Ubiquitous Tire Rubber-Derived Chemical Induces Acute Mortality in Coho Salmon, Science, 2021, Vol. 371, Issue 6525, pp. 185-189.
• Wu B, Majumdar R, Lysak DH, Ghosh Biswas R, Tabatabaei-Anaraki M, Jenne A, You X, Soong R, Daniel Lane D, Helm PA, Codina A, Decker V, Simpson M, Simpson AJ, Towards real-time kinetic monitoring of wastewater treatment: a case study of sunlight and ozone treatment of unconcentrated wastewater using flow NMR, Chemical Engineering Journal, 2021, 405, 126696-126707.
• Wu B, Sufi A, Ghosh Biswas R, Hisatsune A, Moxley-Paquette V, Ning P, Soong R, Dicks AP, Simpson AJ, Direct Conversion of McDonald’s Waste Cooking Oil into a Biodegradable High Resolution 3D Printing Resin, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2020, 8, (2), 1171-1177
• Wu B, von der Ecken S, Swyer I, Li C, Jenne A, Vincent F, Schmidig D, Kuehn T, Busse F, Stronks H, Soong R, Wheeler AR, Simpson AJ, Rapid Chemical Reaction Monitoring by Digital Microfluidics‐NMR: Proof of Principle Towards an Automated Synthetic Discovery Platform, Angewandte Chemie International Edition,  2019, 58 (43), 15372-15376.

For more publications see: https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/labs/asimpson/publications-2/