Dr. Christie M. Sayes is a practicing research scientist, consultant, and academician in toxicology, chemistry, material science, and environmental health. She is an Environmental Science & Toxicology Professor at Baylor University (Waco, Texas).  Sayes is a subject matter expert in the chemistry of materials, exposure science, health effects, and risk. Her activities include working with partners, collaborators, and trainees in designing studies related to safety-by-design considerations of engineered substances and emerging contaminants used in pharmaceutical, agricultural, and consumer products.  Sayes is also interested in occupational safety and environmental transformations of chemical and particle systems in complex matrices.  She possesses a working knowledge of laboratory science and U.S. regulatory climates. Routine activities include validating zebrafish, mouse, and rat in vivo models and alternatives to animal models, biological and chemical molecular mechanistic analyses, toxicological mechanisms, mass spectrometry, electron microscopy, and statistics.  Data sets are always related to the published literature, compared against appropriate controls, and verified using orthogonal methods.   

Sayes was formerly a Director of Environmental Health of Advanced Materials at RTI International (Durham, NC), an Adjunct Professor of Nanoscience within the University of North Carolina System (Greensboro, NC), and an Assistant Professor of Toxicology at Texas A&M University (College Station, TX).  She has two decades of experience in chemistry, materials science, nanotechnology, and toxicology and has authored more than 150 publications, including original research, invited reviews, and book chapters. She is a member of the Society of Toxicology (SOT), American Chemical Society (ACS), and Society for Risk Analysis (SRA). She also serves as an Associate Editor for four Elsevier journals (Food & Chemical Toxicology, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters, and Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances).She serves on the Editorial Board of the journals Toxicological Sciences and Nanotoxicology. For SOT, Sayes is the Past-President of the North Carolina and the Lone Star Regional Chapters; and is currently the President of the Nanoscience & Advanced Materials Specialty Section.  For ACS, Sayes is active in the Toxicology and Environmental Chemistry Divisions.  She is the Advanced Materials and Technology Specialty Group Chair for SRA.  

Christie received her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2005 from Rice University (Houston, TX).  Her dissertation focused on the ‘nano-bio interface’. After graduation, she joined The DuPont Company as Visiting Scientist. She aided in the development of the DuPont-Environmental Defense Nano Risk Framework – the international standard for assessing risks associated with engineered nanomaterials.

Memberships

• Society of Toxicology (SOT)

• American Chemical Society (ACS)

• Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

• Texas Society for Microscopy (TSM)

• Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI)

• Society of Risk Analysis (SRA)

Awards

• Listed, top 2% all-time most cited researchers in higher ed history

• Awardee, Chemical Research in Toxicology Young Investigator, American Chemical Society

• Awardee, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Summer Faculty Fellowship Program

• Recipient, Baylor University “Rising Star” 

• Honorary Member, Society of Risk Analysis

• Thomson Reuters World's Most Influential Scientific Minds

• Outstanding Publication, RTI International

• Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher

• Best Publication in Nanotoxicology Award, Society of Toxicology