Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Environmental Science, University of York, UK, 2014
  • M.S., Ecology and Ethology, Universite Jean Monnet, France, 2008
  • B.S., Environment Management, Universite de Provence, France, 2006
Additional Education & Training
  • Coastlines & People (CoPe). 2018. NSF Scoping Session Workshop, San Diego CA, USA. Research needs related to advancing understanding of the impacts of coastal environmental variability and natural hazards on populated coastal regions.
  • Course: “Career Development.” 2012. CREAM Network. Aachen, Germany.
  • Course: “Complementary Skills:” oral presentations, writing of grant proposals, scientific writing, and poster presentations. 2011. CREAM Network. Rennes, France.
  • Course: “Statistics with R and Spatial analyses with ARCgis.” 2011. CREAM Network. Holte, Denmark.
  • Course at regulatory authority Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD). 2010. CREAM Network. York, UK.
  • Ecotoxicology and Risk Assessment. 2010. CREAM Network. University of York, UK.
  • Ecological Modeling. 2010. CREAM Network, Bad Schandau, Germany.
Academic Appointments
  • Assistant Professor, Environmental Sciences, Institute for a Sustainable Environment and Department of Biology, Clarkson University, 2019-2022
Professional Honors
  • Post-doctoral Scholarship from Texas A&M in Galveston, Department of Marine Biology (2017 - 2019).
  • Marie Curie Fellowship, Seventh Framework Programme. CREAM (Mechanistic Effect Models for Ecological Risk Assessment of Chemicals) Project Fellow (2010 - 2014).
  • Awardee from the Exchange Programme CREPUQ with the Université du Québec à Rimouski, Québec, Canada (2005 – 2006).
Professional Affiliations
  • Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Member
  • Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Wildlife Toxicology Interest Group Steering Committee Member
  • The Wildlife Society Member

Dr. Hernout specializes in wildlife toxicology, with a focus on understanding how chemical stressors impact wild populations. She has experience assessing the exposure and bioaccumulation of chemicals in wildlife and evaluating potential adverse effects and predicting risks.

Dr. Hernout's research has drawn upon her expertise using techniques from molecular toxicology (e.g., Western blotting, EROD assays, and GST assays), spatial analysis, analytical chemistry (i.e., ICP-MS and GC-MS), ecological monitoring, and computational biology.

Her doctoral studies focused on assessing the risks of soil-associated metals to bats in England and Wales by developing and applying a spatially explicit modeling framework. She also extended the model to assess exposure to several bat and passerine bird species, and validated model results against a targeted monitoring dataset of metal concentrations in bat tissues. Further, to refine estimations of the amount of chemicals readily accessible in the blood stream though the digestive tract, Dr. Hernout developed an In vitro gastric model to assess the bioaccessibility of metals to insectivorous bats.

Dr. Hernout's post-doctoral research focused on the effects of organic chemicals on marine organisms. She investigated the effects of crude oil, dispersant, and their mixture, on enzymes involved in endocrine function and detoxification processes in the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). Her research also investigated metabolic disruptions (e.g., Tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle activity) induced by hypoxia in zebrafish (Danio rerio) using a genome-scale metabolic model. She has also studied the association between organic compounds (e.g., PCBs and PAHs) and biochemical biomarkers of pollution in fish from the Gulf of Mexico.