Bellis completed her BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, before interning at ORNL with the Aquatic Toxicology Lab and the Environmental Risk and Energy Analysis group.

Bellis is broadly interested in ecotoxicology, with specific interests in phytoextraction, environmental monitoring for pollutants, contaminant uptake by invasive plants, and understanding the physiological mechanisms of contaminant accumulation at the molecular level. In the past, she’s researched the effects of PFAS on freshwater invertebrates and plan to shift my focus toward heavy metals, radionuclides, and other contaminants during my dissertation.