Loren Knopper

Dr. Loren Knopper (he/him), a Senior Principal and the Senior Technical Advisor for Research, Environmental Services, at Stantec Consulting Ltd., is an internationally recognized environmental health professional with close to 25 years of academic and consulting experience. Over the course of his career Loren has followed a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach that has combined his experiences in biology, zoology, physiology, toxicology, risk assessment, public health, public communication, project management and business development. Loren is a discipline and inspiration driven, outcome focused, big picture thinker. He has successfully led and managed projects of various levels of complexity for a diverse set of sectors that include agrochemical, renewable energy, commercial, private, and government. In addition to the technical (e.g., human health and ecological risk assessments of contaminants in air, soil, water and sediment for birds, mammals, bees, plants and aquatic receptors; registration of agrichemical products) and project management (proposal writing, financial scoping, team leadership, business development) aspects of his work, a core component of what Loren does as a senior professional deals with communication. Whether as a facilitator of professional development courses, an expert witness at legal hearings, a subject matter expert at public open houses and town hall meetings, a university lecturer, a real-time consultant to his clients, or as an author of scientific manuscripts (>40) and plain language reports, Loren communicates with purpose, understanding and empathy, all of which stem from his broad based experience. This is where his innovation and expertise in the field stands out from others. At present, Loren is Senior Technical Advisor for Research for Environmental Services at Stantec and teaches two graduate level courses in the School of Environmental Science.

Education

2005-2007: National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Industrial Research and Development Fellow (IRDF), Jacques Whitford, Ottawa, Ontario

2004-2005: National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Visiting Fellow in Canadian Government Laboratories. National Wildlife Research Centre, Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa, Ontario

2004: Ph.D., Biology, University of Ottawa, Ontario Canada

1999: M.Sc., Biology, University of New Orleans, Louisiana USA

1996: B.Sc., Biology, University of Guelph, Ontario Canada

Research

Ecological risk assessment; Human health risk assessment; Toxicology; Pesticides; Biomarkers; Pollinators; Wind turbines and human health; Risk Assessment

Publications (2016-date)

Tuarze, P., Stephenson, M., Mazzocco, P., and Knopper, L. 2021. A Physiologically Based Oiling Model (PBOM) to Predict Thermoregulatory Response in Birds. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 40(1): 251-260

Hunt, J., Duca, D., Dan, T., Knopper, L. 2019. Petroleum Hydrocarbon (PHC) Uptake in Plants: A Literature Review. Environmental Pollution 245:472-484.

McGee S, Whitfield-Aslund M, Duca D, Kopysh N, Dan T, Knopper L, Brewer L. 2018. Field evaluation of the potential for avian exposure to clothianidin following the planting of clothianidin-treated corn seed. PeerJ 6:e5880 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5880.

Brain RA, Schneider SZ, Anderson JC, Knopper LD, Wolf JC, Hanson ML. 2018. Extended fish short term reproduction assays with the fathead minnow and Japanese medaka: No evidence of impaired fecundity from exposure to atrazine. Chemosphere. Aug; 205:126-136. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.04.068.

Hosmer, A.J., Schneider, S.Z., Anderson, J.C., Knopper, Loren D., and Brain, R.A. 2017. Fish short-term reproduction assay (FSTRA) with atrazine and the Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes): FSTRA with Atrazine and the Japanese Medaka. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 36(9):2327-2334.

Whitfield Aslund, M., Winchell, M., Bowers, L., McGee, S., Tang, J., Padilla, L., Greer, C., Knopper, L., and Moore, DRJ. 2017. Ecological Risk Assessment for Aquatic Invertebrate Communities Exposed to Imidacloprid as a Result of Labeled Agricultural and Nonagricultural Uses in the United States. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 36 (5): 1375-1388.

Knopper, L.D., Dan, T., Reisig, D.D., Johnson, J.D. and Bowers, L.M. 2016. Sugar concentration in nectar: a quantitative metric of crop attractiveness for refined pollinator risk assessments. Pest Management Science. DOI 10.1002/ps.4321.

Berger, R.G., Whitfield Aslund, M. Sanders, G., Charlebois, M. Knopper, L.D., and Bresee, K. 2016. A multiple lines of evidence approach for the ecological risk assessment of an accidental bitumen release from a steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) well in the Athabasca oil sands region. Science of the Total Environment. 542: 495–504

Knopper, L, Breton, R, Moore, D, Hall, A. T, and Bowers, L. 2016. The challenge: How can we improve the quality of ecotoxicology research to increase relevance and use in regulatory decision-making?. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 35 (1): 18-19, 2016