Jonathan BenskinProfessor
About me
I completed my BSc in Chemistry at the University of Victoria (Canada) before going on to a PhD in Medical Sciences in the Department of Lab Medicine and Pathology at the University of Alberta, where I studied isomer profiling of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Thereafter I worked concurrently as a Visiting Scientist at the Fisheries and Oceans Canada Institute of Ocean Sciences, and as an NSERC Industrial Research and Development Fellow at AXYS Analytical Services Ltd, before being hired as a Principal Scientist at AXYS, responsible for developing the company's metabolomics division. In 2014 I joined ACES as an Associate Professor and was promoted to Full Professor in 2021.
Teaching
I am responsible for MI7019: Contaminant Analysis, which occurs in Autumn Period D, and for the water quality and analysis components of MI8011: Environmental Protection Technology, which occurs in Autumn Period C. Up until 2020 I taught general statistics in KA7002: Chemometrics and have previously run courses on Career Planning and Proposal Writing as part of the Marie-Curie ITNs: HypoTrain and PERFORCE3.
Research
High resolution mass spectrometry-based non-target and suspect screening
My group develops new analytical methods using state-of-the-art instrumentation to detect and identify novel chemical entities. Through collaboration with researchers at the Swedish Museum of Natural history, the Swedish Food Agency, and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, we can apply these methods to a wide range of samples, including human biofluids, wildlife tissues, and municipal wastewater treatment plant sludge. Recent highlights include non-target time trend screening in human blood, and single zebrafish embryo metabolomics.
Fluorine mass balance experiments
Over 4500 Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are known to exist yet only a small fraction (~20-50) are routinely measured, leading to concerns that PFAS exposure may be underestimated. To address this problem, we combine targeted analyses with combustion ion chromatography (CIC)-based total fluorine determination in a so-called “fluorine mass balance” approach. Samples with large quantities of unidentified organofluorine can be prioritized for characterization using high resolution-based suspect/non-target screening. Applications of this technique include human serum and wildlife tissues, wastewater treatment plant sludge, groundwater, and consumer products (cosmetics, food packaging, textiles, etc). Among our most recent discoveries is the occurrence of a large quantity of unidentified organofluorine in the blubber of marine mammals, which we are currently working to identify.
Contaminant fate, behaviour, time trends
We apply novel analytical tools to study contaminant fate, behaviour, and time trends in the environment. Examples include the uptake of PFAS in vegetables and fungi, biotransformation of contaminants in sediments, and PFAS temporal trends in human serum, milk, and wildlife tissues.
