Wilson Ramirez-Duarte

Dr. Wilson F. Ramírez-Duarte is an aquatic toxicologist and a Diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology (ABVT). He received his veterinary degree from the University of the Llanos’ School of Veterinary Medicine in Colombia and his PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of California, Davis. Subsequently, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in aquatic toxicology and ecotoxicology in the Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Cell Biology at the University of California, Davis’ School of Veterinary Medicine. Later, he was appointed as a postdoctoral fellow in aquatic ecotoxicology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Ramírez-Duarte has conducted research on the hazard of pollutants in aquatic ecosystems. His interests as a toxicologist have encompassed the application of biomarkers to evaluate the impact of health outcomes of toxicants in fish; employing genomic approaches to identify genes affected by exposure to contaminants in water (e.g., pesticides, pharmaceuticals, personal care products, metals, hormones); assessing fish health in ecosystems impacted by changes in water quality; evaluating the mixture effects of biotic and abiotic environmental factors (e.g., pH, temperature, salinity, UV radiation, food limitation, pollutants) on aquatic organisms in rivers and estuaries; and using animal models to address issues of environmental contaminants in public health. More recently, he has focused his research on the impact of chemical pollutants as disruptors of reproductive barriers and facilitators of hybridization in fish.