When Tamzin Blewett was an undergraduate, she took a course in endocrinology, where she learned about the effects of pharmaceuticals on fish and other species.
“I was gaining an understanding of how we influence our environment through toxicants. It’s not just the ecosystem — our community health directly ties to water sustainability and water health,” says Blewett. “It really connected to me.”
She was inspired to continue that work, and during her Master’s she studied how temperature, or salinity or oxygen, would affect how a specific birth control chemical is absorbed and distributed within organisms.
To date, she’s given 25 invited talks to institutions around the world, published 65 peer-reviewed publications, received many awards and works with international and national bodies of interests in environmental policy.
Blewett has a passion for understanding environments — like studying the ways fish engage socially, which can in turn affect lab results.
But she’s most proud of her role as a mentor. “I love what I do. But I think my impact will not so much be from a scientific impact, but from, I’m hoping, a mentorship standpoint. If I can excite and get other people passionate about the problems we’re facing on the water sustainability front, then that’ll have a larger impact than just the science I’m producing myself.”
This article appears in the Nov/Dec 2024 issue of Edify
