Milena Esser

Milena is a postdoctoral fellow in the Kidd Lab, Department of Biology, McMaster University, specializing in environmental toxicology and microbial ecology. Her research focuses on how human activities, such as wastewater discharge and chemical exposure, shape microbial communities in freshwater ecosystems and aquatic organisms. She uses molecular tools, including eDNA metabarcoding and multi-omics approaches, to connect ecological change to underlying mechanisms and function.

She completed her PhD in Toxicology at the University of Saskatchewan and holds a Master’s degree in Ecotoxicology from RWTH Aachen University (Germany). Beyond her research, she has taught courses and workshops on omics and quantitative toxicology and has presented her work at international conferences, including the Canadian Ecotoxicity Workshop (CEW) and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC).