{"id":3617,"date":"2014-08-14T10:09:05","date_gmt":"2014-08-14T14:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/?post_type=cu_people&p=3617"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:52:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:52:05","slug":"robert-letcher","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/people\/robert-letcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Letcher"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Current Research<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Robert Letcher is a Senior Research Scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). He is the Unit and Group Head of the Organic Contaminants Research Laboratory (in ST&B\/WLSD\u2019s Ecotoxicology and Wildlife Health Division) located in the National Wildlife Research Centre at 杏吧原创 University in Ottawa. He leads a group of ECCC staff as well as (co)supervises the projects of several graduate students and postdoctoral fellow at any given time. His has engaged in collaborative research over more than two decades with numerous government and academic partners. As of the end of 2022, this work has resulted in >420 peer-reviewed journal papers, >40 review papers, numerous book chapters and other peer-reviewed publications, and many government and external reports. In 2019, Dr. Letcher was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and Canada (Academy of Sciences).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Letcher has made extensive contributions to the Government of Canada’s advancements in science, policy or technology. His work responds to Government of Canada and ECCC priorities and mandate to preserve, conserve and enhance the quality of the natural environment under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA). His innovative research findings have highly influenced and informed stakeholders in various programs that monitor and are assessing the risk and management of chemicals in Canada, e.g. the Chemicals Management Plan (CMP; ECCC\/HC) and the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP; ECCC\/CIRNAC). The scientific information generated has also impacted and influenced international agreements and regulatory frameworks, e.g. the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (Canada-United States International Joint Commission), the Arctic Council\u2019s AMAP and UNEP’s Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and Minamata Convention on mercury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Letcher\u2019s ECCC priority research covers a wide range of areas and topics and has advanced the understanding of the environmental\/analytical chemistry, exposure, fate (metabolism\/biotransformation), food web dynamics, spatial\/temporal trends, environmental processes (e.g. climate change) and biological effects and impacts of legacy\/emerging contaminants in wildlife\/biota and their ecosystems throughout Canada and internationally (e.g. the Arctic and freshwater aquatic systems like the Great Lakes). Dr. Letcher has built up an innovative and world-class ECCC research laboratory and the following five statements summarize areas of project activities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n