Antoine Simond

West Vancouver, BC, Canada

Postdoctoral fellow – Ecotoxicologist – Marine mammal specialist

Education

  • Ph.D. in Biology / Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada / 2015 – 2020

    During my Ph.D., I specialized in animal ecotoxicology, toxicogenomic and metabolomics applied to marine mammals. The title of my thesis was “Bioaccumulation and effects of halogenated flame retardants in belugas and Minke whales from the St. Lawrence Estuary”, and my supervisors were Jonathan Verreault (UQÀM) and Magali Houde (Environment and Climate Change Canada).

  • Master’s degree in Environmental Science / Université du Havre, France / 2011 – 2013

    During my Master’s degree, I specialized in aquatic ecotoxicology, chemical environmental risk management, and marine chemistry.

  • Bachelor of Life Sciences, Technology and Health / Université de la Rochelle, France / 2010 – 2011

    During my Bachelor’s degree, I mainly specialized in marine biology and marine ecology.

  • Technical College Diplome in Marine Environment / CNAM-Intechmer, Cherbourg, France / 2007 – 2009

    Thanks to this multidisciplinary degree, I was able to familiarize myself with many disciplines related to the marine environment, such as coastal geology, geotechnical studies, mapping, GIS, ecotoxicology, microbiology, biochemistry, radioactivity, environmental law.

Professional experience

  • Postdoctoral Fellow / Fisheries and Oceans Canada, West Vancouver, BC / Oct, 2020 – present

    My two supervisors are Tanya Brown (DFO Canada) and Marie Noël (Ocean wise). I am involved in several projects involving different Canadian beluga whale population. we use Omics tools such as transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, in order to (1) identify priority contaminants and (2) better evaluate their biological effects in the endangered St. Lawrence Estuary Beluga population. We also intend to evaluate and update contaminant exposure of St. Lawrence belugas by analyzing thousands of legacy and emerging contaminants in sediments and main prey. My tasks include logistical management, data analysis, statistical processing, drafting of scientific reports and scientific publications, presentation of results in international conferences.

  • Research Associate / Fisheries and Oceans Canada, West Vancouver, BC / Jun, 2020 – Oct, 2020

  • Fieldwork Research Assistant / Université du Québec à Montréal, QC / 2019 – 2020

    During my Ph.D. I worked for two professors as Fieldwork Research Assistant. In May and June 2019, I worked for Dr. Maikel Rosabal. My tasks consisted of coordinating logistic, supervising 3 Bachelor trainees, and collecting several fish and plankton species in several lakes near Sudbury (ON, Canada) and Rouyn-Noranda (QC, Canada). In June 2020, I worked for Dr. Jonathan Verreault. My tasks consisted of coordinating logistic, capturing ring-billed gulls using leg traps, taking their anatomical measurements, and sampling their blood.

Publications

– Simond et al., 2022. A multi-matrix metabolomic approach in ringed seals and beluga whales to evaluate contaminant and climate-related stressors. Metabolites, Submitted.

– Simond et al., 2020. Metabolomic profiles of the endangered St. Lawrence Estuary beluga population and associations with organohalogen contaminants. Sci. Total Environ. 717, 137204, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137204.

– Simond et al., 2019. Associations between organohalogen exposure and thyroid- and steroid-related gene responses in St. Lawrence Estuary belugas and minke whales. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 145, 174–184, doi:10.1016/J.MARPOLBUL.2019.05.029.

– Simond et al., 2017. Temporal trends of PBDEs and emerging flame retardants in belugas from the St. Lawrence Estuary (Canada) and comparisons with minke whales and Canadian Arctic belugas. Environ. Res. 156, 494–504, doi:10.1016/j.envres.2017.03.058.

Fieldwork experience

– Marine environment: logistical organization, sampling of cetacean biopsies for chemical, genomic and bacteriological analyzes, training of volunteers.

– Freshwater environment: logistical organization, collection of sediment, plankton, fish, management of trainees.

Skills

– Software: QGIS, ESRI/ArcGIS, R and Rstudio, qBase plus, CFX Manager, Photoshop, PowerPoint, Excel, Word (PC and Mac).

– Laboratory Skill: Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (flame & electrothermal), gas chromatography (GC-MS), DMA mercury analyzer, TLC-Iatroscan, thermocycler for PCR, electrophoresis system, digital droplet PCR, precision balance, autoclave, freeze dryer, centrifuge, microscope, handling of liquid nitrogen, pH meter, depth gauge, and sediment grab samplers.

– Writing: ability to write documents in French or English, synthetically, logically, grammatically correct, and with a technical or popular vocabulary depending on the context

– Spoken language: French (mother tongue), English (bilingual), and Spanish (intermediary).