Miling Li

Postdoctoral Fellow
University of British Columbia

My primary research interests lie in the linkage between the Earth sciences and human health, and I have dedicated my research career so far to applying geology and geochemistry to the field of Environmental Health. I obtained my Sc.D. in Environmental Health from Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health where I primarily worked on investigating sources of methylmercury exposure for marine biota and humans using mercury stable isotopes.

As a MAGNET postdoctoral fellow, I focus on reconstructing the ocean life history for various British Columbia salmon stocks, including dietary composition, geographic location of feeding grounds, and migration timing using both light (carbon, nitrogen) and heavy isotope tracers (mercury, strontium, lead). I also use isotope compositions of Arctic sea-ice associated species such as beluga and bowhead whales to investigate the environmental origins of heavy metals and to detect climate-induced changes in the Arctic including foraging ecology of these whales. My MAGNET training truly expands my skillsets and I have learned so much about different isotope systems from my peer MAGNET trainees and supervisors. The collaborative framework MAGNET offers is instrumental for me to generate multidisciplinary dialogues to tackle global and local environmental issues.

Last updated May 2018