Dr Cesar Villa is an adjunct Research Fellow at Griffith University’s Australian River’s Institute Toxicology Research Group (ARI-TOX), where he is currently developing biomonitoring methods and techniques to investigate pollutant exposure in marine wildlife. His doctoral research in environmental toxicology was completed at the University of Queensland’s Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) and focused on developing non-target analytical methods for monitoring levels of trace-element contaminants from blood and shell samples from populations of marine turtles from the Great Barrier Reef.

Dr Villa’s current focus in on updating and improving wildlife contaminant monitoring programs, particularly those that focus on trace-elements such as mercury. A key aspect for interpreting biomonitoring data is the availability of trace element baseline data which is often missing or overlooked even in sentinel species used as indicators of environmental health.

In addition to his academic research, Dr Villa has collaborated with WWF-Australia on their recently completed River’s to Reefs to Turtles project and has provided expert advice to government and industry partners in Queensland, Western Australia, and the Torres-Straits.