Dr Sharon Hook

Biography
Sharon Hook is a Senior Research Scientist based at CSIRO, Oceans and Atmosphere in Hobart. Sharon’s research interests include applying modern –omics based approaches to environmental problems, determining the impacts of low level exposures in generating long term ecologically relevant toxic responses, and in the appropriate design and implementation of toxicity testing. Sharon has worked with a vast array of environmental contaminants, including metals, oil, and pesticides, and with a variety of taxa, from bacteria to fish.

Expertise
• Mechanistic environmental toxicity
• Environmental toxicogenomics
• Functional Genomics
• Environmental assessments following oil spills
• Toxicity test design

Current activities
• Utilising functional gene based assays to monitor contaminant persistence and biodegradation
• Establishing “pre-impact” hydrocarbon and physiological baselines
• Developing monitoring strategies for hydrocarbon releases
• Developing transcriptomic approaches to site assessment
• Utilising functional genomics to predict environmental adaptation
• Designing toxicity tests to predict impacts of pesticide run off on economically important species

Memberships:
• Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) 1997-present
• SETAC Steering committee for the omics working group
• International Organising committee for the Pollutant Response in Marine Organisms conference, 2011, 2015
• Ecotoxicology Subject matter editor, Marine Biology Research (Taylor and Francis, Impact Factor 1.47)

Invited presentations:
• Conference Organising Committee: Pollutant Response in Marine Organisms conference, 2011, 2015
• Session Chair: Pollutant Response in Marine Organisms conference, 2011, 2013, 2015
 SETAC Australasia 2013, 2014, 2016
• Workshop Organiser: SETAC Australasia 2011, 2016
• Contributor: Risk assessment for dispersant use in the Arctic (NOAA);
 White paper on the use of “omics” based technologies for the US EPA
• Seminar Speaker: University of New South Wales – 2009; CAPIM/University of Melbourne - 2011; University of Tasmania at Launceston 2014; Australian Institute of Marine Science 2014; NTNU; NIVA; University of Olso (Norway) 2015; University of Le Harve (France); University of North Texas (USA) Jan 2017
• Invited Conference Presentations: Pollutant Response in Marine Organisms conference, 2013; What’s in our water/Emerging Contaminants 2009, 2015; Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Environment, Science, and Technical Network workshop 2014, 2015, 2016; Australian Prawn Farmer’s Association workshop 2016
• Other Research Communication: presentations at: the IORA workshop 2014; Dispersant Masterclass 2014, 2015; the GAB symposium 2015, 2016; Great Barrier Reef Marine Parks Authority 2016

Sharon has authored or co authored over 35 scientific publications, 1 book, 2 book chapters, and over 25 technical reports (as part of CSIRO and other agencies). She has an isi H-index of 16 and a google scholar h index of 20