Silvana Andreescu, PhD, is the new chair for the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the FIU Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work. Andreescu will take over the position of Quentin Felty, PhD, who served as interim chair of the department since February 2024.
Prior to joining Stempel College, Andreescu was the Egon Matijević Chair in Chemistry and Professor of Bioanalytical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Science at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.
She received a PhD in Chemistry, specializing in biosensors from the University of Perpignan, France, and the University of Bucharest, Romania, in 2002, and has been a member of the Clarkson faculty since 2005. Between 2003 and 2005, Andreescu was an NSF-NATO postdoctoral fellow at the State University of New York at Binghamton.
Her research interests are in analytical and bioanalytical chemistry, bioelectrochemistry, bionanotechnology and the development of practical biosensors for clinical and environmental monitoring. She pioneered a variety of sensing platforms that incorporate nanomaterial interfaces to advance the transduction of chemical and biological information into analytical signals for detection and qualification of clinical, food and environmental targets. Her recent work features the development of easy-to-use sensors for detecting environmental contaminants with focus on trace metals, PFAS, pesticides and endocrine disrupting chemicals. Her sensing technologies are used to advance understanding of fundamental molecular mechanisms in biological systems, particularly those related to oxidative stress, determine clinical analytes associated with medical conditions, and addressing environmental health challenges posed by exposure to emerging contaminants.
Andreescu is the recipient of a French Government Graduate Fellowship, a NATO-NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, the NSF-CAREER award, the John W. Graham Faculty Research Award, the Research Excellence Award at Clarkson University. She and her team have published over 180 peer-reviewed publications, co-edited 3 books, was awarded 3 patents and has delivered some 250 presentations throughout the world. Her research was supported by grants from the NSF, NIH, DOD, USDA, NY state and private industries.
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