Stapleton

Heather M. Stapleton

Ronie-Richele Garcia-Johnson Distinguished Professor

Research Interests

  • Human exposure in indoor environments
  • Use of silicone wristbands to measure human exposure
  • Chemical exposures and cancer risk
  • Targeted & Nontargeted mass spectrometry methods applied to environmental samples
  • Effects of halogenated organic contaminants (e.g. BFRs, PFAS) on thyroid hormone regulation

Bio

Professor Heather Stapleton is an environmental chemist and exposure scientist in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.  Her research interests focus on identification of halogenated and organophosphate chemicals in building materials, furnishings and consumer products, and estimation of human exposure, particularly in vulnerable populations such as pregnant women and children.  Her laboratory utilizes mass spectrometry, including targeted and nontargeted approaches, to characterize chemical burdens in both environmental samples and biological tissues to support environmental health research. Currently she serves as the Director for the Duke Superfund Research Center, and Director of the Duke Environmental Analysis Laboratory, which is part of NIH’s Human Health Environmental Analysis Resource.

 

Education

  • B.S. Long Island University, Southhampton College, 1997
  • M.S. University of Maryland, College Park, 2000
  • Ph.D. University of Maryland, College Park, 2003

Positions

  • Ronie-Richele Garcia-Johnson Distinguished Professor
  • Professor
  • Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Member of the Duke Cancer Institute

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

  • Highly Cited Researcher in the field of Environment. Clarivate. 2021
  • Thomas Langford Lectureship Award. Duke University. 2020
  • Highly Cited Researcher. Clarivate. 2019
  • Best Paper of the Year Award. Environmental Science & Technology. 2011

Courses Taught

  • ENVIRON 899: Master's Project
  • ENVIRON 898: Program Area Seminar
  • ENVIRON 540: Chemical Fate of Organic Compounds
  • ENVIRON 393: Research Independent Study
  • ENVIRON 360: Environmental Health: Pollutant Chemistry and Toxicology
  • CEE 563: Chemical Fate of Organic Compounds

In the News

Representative Publications

  • Gaballah, Shaza, Brian Hormon, Genavieve St Armour Mason Nelson, Jinyan Cao, Kate Hoffman, Heather B. Patisaul, and Heather M. Stapleton. “Distribution of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in placental tissues of maternal and fetal origin in exposed Wistar rats and associations with thyroid hormone levels.” Toxicological Sciences : An Official Journal of the Society of Toxicology 204, no. 1 (March 2025): 20–30. https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfae151.
  • Leuthner, Tess C., Sharon Zhang, Brendan F. Kohrn, Heather M. Stapleton, and L Ryan Baugh. “Structure-specific variation in per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances toxicity among genetically diverse Caenorhabditis elegans strains.” Toxicological Sciences : An Official Journal of the Society of Toxicology, February 2025, kfaf014. https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfaf014.
  • Boxer, Elizabeth, Yilin Zhong, Jessica Levasseur, Heather M. Stapleton, and Kate Hoffman. “Young infants' exposure to parabens: lotion use as a potential source of exposure.” Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, February 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-025-00756-4.
  • Miller, Joshua D., Nicholas J. Herkert, Heather M. Stapleton, and Heileen Hsu-Kim. “Silicone wristbands for assessing personal chemical exposures: impacts of movement on chemical uptake rates.” Environmental Science. Processes & Impacts, February 2025. https://doi.org/10.1039/d4em00440j.
  • Wise, Catherine F., Nicholas J. Herkert, Kate Hoffman, Shelly Vaden, Matthew Breen, and Heather M. Stapleton. “Environmental Exposures and Canine Bladder Cancer: A Case Control Study Using Silicone Passive Samplers.” Environmental Science & Technology 59, no. 2 (January 2025): 1121–32. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c09271.