Department Chair

Dr. Cañas-Carrell

Chair, Department of Environmental Toxicology and Professor, Analytical Toxicology and Environmental Chemistry

Ph.D. Environmental Toxicology,
Texas Tech University 2005
B.S. Zoology, Texas Tech University 2001

Dr. Cañas-Carrell has been a faculty member in the Department of Environmental Toxicology since 2006.  She received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2012. Dr. Cañas-Carrell received her B.S. in Zoology in 2001 and Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology in 2005 from Texas Tech University. She worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Western Ecology Division in Corvallis, Oregon prior to joining the TTU faculty.  Her research interests are focused on emerging contaminants and include determining the fate of chemicals in the environment as well as developing analytical methods to characterize potential exposure. She is particularly interested in determining the fate and effects of manufactured nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene, in terrestrial and aquatic systems.  Her research in the area of nanotoxicology was recently featured on the cover of Environmental Science: Impacts & Processes (formerly Journal of Environmental Monitoring).

Dr. Cañas-Carrell is also heavily involved in STEM Education. She is an Associate Director of the Texas Tech University STEM Center for Outreach, Research, and Education. She is the Director of the Plains Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program (funded by the National Institutes of Health) which supports underrepresented minority community college students that are interested in science.  The Program, recently funded for an additional 5 years, helps students to succeed in college and transfer to a four-year university.  In 2009 and 2013, Dr. Cañas-Carrell received the President’s Excellence in Diversity & Equity Award for her efforts to promote and support diversity at TTU.