Denis da Silva, Ph.D.

Background

Dr. Denis da Silva has worked as a research chemist at the NWFSC since 2011. He earned his B.S. in Chemistry in 2000 and his Ph.D. degree in chemical oceanography from the University of São Paulo, Brazil in 2005. From 2000 to 2007 he worked on several environmental monitoring projects in a number of regions, including Antarctica and urbanized coastal areas in Brazil, focusing on petroleum contamination. Denis first joined the NWFSC as a Post-Doc scientist in 2007 developing methods to analyze fish tissues for trace levels of endocrine disrupting chemicals by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). He also helped develop LC-MS/MS methods to measure dispersant components and PAH metabolites in tissues of NOAA trust resources after the Deepwater Horizon MC252 oil spill.

Current Research

Dr. da Silva’s research interests are focused on method development, validation and quantitative analyses of sex steroids and other hormones, as well as new contaminants of concern such as endocrine disrupting chemicals (bisphenol A, alkylphenols, synthetic and natural hormones) in NOAA trust resources using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and other analytical instrumentation. These data are then used to provide information on exposure levels of emerging contaminants of concern and their potential effects on NOAA trust resources. In addition, Denis helps develop quality assurance criteria for these analyses to ensure that the data are of known and acceptable quality. Denis also maintains the LC-MS/MS laboratory equipped with two LC-MS/MS and N2 generators that are also used by other programs in the NWFSC.