Meeting the Challenges of Particulate Matter Air Pollution: EPA’s PM Research Centers

Presenter Bios:

John Bachmann is the Associate Director for Science Policy and New Programs for EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards in Research Triangle Park, NC. In that capacity, he facilitates discussions between scientists and policy makers and assists in articulating key research priorities and long-term policy directions. He has substantial experience in development and assessment of the health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standards, as well as work on innovative approaches for implementing clean air programs. Early work included development of the first air carcinogens policy, setting priorities for toxic pollutants, visibility protection, and acid rain policy. He actively participated on the EPA team that worked on the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. He played a key role in the major revisions and legal defense of the 1997 revisions to the National Air Quality Standards for particulate matter and ozone. He has assisted in developing and funding a number of new programs, including the recently completed Southern Appalachian Mountain Initiative program and the Clean Air Power Initiative. More recently, he has worked on the team developing and assessing multipollutant alternatives for electric power generation, including formulation of the Clear Skies Act and the Clean Air Interstate Rule proposal. He has a B.S. in Chemistry and Masters in teaching chemistry and in environmental Health Engineering (majoring in air pollution), all from the University of Notre Dame.

Robert Devlin, Ph.D. is the Chief of the Clinical Research Branch (Human Studies Division) in EPA and leads a group of scientists responsible for assessing the effects of environmental pollutants in humans. Dr. Devlin received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Virginia in 1976 and served on the faculty at Emory University for several years before joining the Environmental Protection Agency in 1986. His research interests are focused on understanding the health effects of air pollutants in humans, using a combination of controlled human exposure studies, epidemiology panel studies, and in vitro molecular studies. His current work involves the characterization of adverse health effects in humans exposed to particulate matter (PM) as well as defining the pathophysiological mechanisms by which PM causes adverse effects. Dr. Devlin has won numerous awards for his research, including two Bronze medals and a Gold Medal from the EPA. Since joining the EPA, he has authored more than 140 articles and has presented his research at many research institutions and international meetings. He also reviews articles for journals, reviews research grants for several agencies, and is a member of numerous advisory panels, review groups, and professional societies in his areas of interest.

William Farland, Ph.D. is currently Chief Scientist in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisor’s Office as well as Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Science in EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD). Prior to that appointment, he was the Director of the ORD’s National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), which has major responsibility for the conduct of chemical-specific risk assessments in support of EPA regulatory programs, the development of Agency-wide guidance on risk assessment, and the conduct of research to improve risk assessment. Dr. Farland’s 25-year federal career has been characterized by a commitment to the development of national and international approaches to the testing and assessment of the fate and effects of environmental agents. He has led the EPA’s extensive reassessment of the exposure and health effects of dioxin and related compounds. Dr. Farland holds a Ph.D. (1976) from UCLA in Cell Biology and Biochemistry. Dr. Farland serves on a number of executive-level committees and advisory boards within the federal government. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, a public member of the American Chemistry Council’s Strategic Science Team for its Long Term Research Program and several other industry- and university-based Science Advisory Panels. In 2002, Dr. Farland was recognized by the Society for Risk Analysis with the “Outstanding Risk Practitioner Award.” He continues to teach and publish and has been a member of the Editorial Board for Risk Analysis since 1987 and for Environmental Health Perspectives since 1997.

John R. Froines, Ph.D. is Director of the NIH Fogarty’s UCLA Program in Occupational and Environmental Health and he is Associate Director of the NIEHS Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center. He directs the Southern California Particle Center and Supersite, a major research center devoted to studying the effects of particulate matter on human health. Dr. Froines’ air pollution-related research includes the health effects of particulate matter in the ambient environment, lung cancer and non-cancer health effects attributable to air pollution, and the biochemical mechanism of the carcinogenicity of toxic air contaminants, just to name a few. In addition to his research on air pollution, he has conducted research on the carcinogenicity of arsenic, beryllium, and chromium during the past decade. In the former case, he has focused on the genetic determinants of the mechanism of arsenic related systemic cancers. He has conducted extensive research on pesticide exposure in Mexico. He has served on the National Toxicology Board of Scientific Counselors as Chair of the Carcinogen Subcommittee. Dr. Froines has received numerous honors, including recent citations for his contributions from the Governor and the head of CAL/EPA. Dr. Froines is the chairman of the California’s Scientific Review Panel where he is charged with reviewing data on proposed toxic air contaminants to ensure the appropriate applications of science and risk assessment.

Paul Gilman, Ph.D. serves as the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development, which is the scientific and technological arm of the Environmental Protection Agency. In May 2002, he was appointed the Agency Science Advisor. In this capacity, he is responsible for working across the Agency to ensure that the highest quality science is better integrated into the Agency’s programs, policies, and decisions. Before his confirmation, he was Director, Policy Planning for Celera Genomics in Rockville, Maryland. Celera Genomics, a bioinformation and drug discovery company, is known for having decoded the human genome. In his position Dr. Gilman was responsible for strategic planning for corporate development and communications. Prior to joining Celera, Dr. Gilman was the Executive Director of the life sciences and agriculture divisions of the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering. Before joining the NRC, Dr. Gilman was the Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget for Natural Resources, Energy, and Science. There he coordinated budget formulation, regulatory, and legislative activities between agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, Agriculture, and Energy with the Execu-tive Office of the President. He previously served as Executive Assistant to the Secretary of Energy for technical matters and worked for 13 years on the staff of the United States Senate.

Dan Greenbaum joined the Health Effects Institute as its President and Chief Executive Officer on March 1, 1994. In that role, he leads HEI’s efforts, supported jointly by US EPA and industry, to provide public and private decision makers with high quality, impartial, relevant and credible science about the health effects of air pollution. He has focused HEI’s efforts on providing timely and critical research and reanalysis on particulate matter (PM), air toxics, diesel exhaust, and alternative technologies and fuels. Mr. Greenbaum chaired the EPA Blue Ribbon Panel on Oxygenates in Gasoline, which issued its report Achieving Clean Air and Clean Water in July 1999, and EPA’s Clean Diesel Independent Review Panel, which issued its report on technology progress in implementing the 2007 Highway Diesel Rule in October 2002. He also serves on the National Research Council Board of Environmental Studies and Toxicology and was vice chair of its Committee for Air Quality Management in the United States and a member of its Committee on Research Priorities on Airborne Particulate Matter. He regularly presents the results of HEI’s scientific work to U.S., international, and state audiences, the U.S. Congress, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Parliament. Mr. Greenbaum has three decades of governmental and non-governmental experience in environmental health. Just prior to coming to HEI, he served as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection from 1988 to 1994, where he was responsible for the Commonwealth’s response to the Clean Air Act, as well as its award-winning efforts on pollution prevention, water pollution, and solid and hazardous waste. Mr. Greenbaum holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from MIT in City Planning.

Carol Henry, Ph.D. serves as Vice President for Science and Research at the American Chemistry Council (ACC). She directs and manages the ACC’s Long-Range Research Initiative that is designed to study the potential impacts of chemicals on health and the environment. Prior to joining the American Chemistry Council in May 1999, Dr. Henry directed the Health and Environmental Sciences Department of the American Petroleum Institute (API). Previously, Dr. Henry served at the U.S. Department of Energy and at the California Environmental Protection Agency. She received her undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Minnesota and doctorate in microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh. A diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology, Dr. Henry is a member of the American College of Toxicology, of which she has been president, the Society of Toxicology, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Chemical Society. She currently serves on the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the National Research Council; the Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine of the Institute of Medicine; the Chemical Sciences Roundtable of the National Research Council; the CIIT Centers for Health Research Board of Directors; and as a member of Environmental Health Perspectives Editorial Review Board.

Jeffrey Holmstead, Assistant Administrator, is in charge of all activities at EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation—including programs addressing global climate change, industrial and vehicle pollution, acid rain, stratospheric ozone depletion, radiation protection and, of course, indoor air quality. Mr. Holmstead had extensive experience with the Clean Air Act and EPA air programs prior to his appointment to EPA. From 1989 to 1993, he was associate counsel to the President in the White House of President George H.W. Bush. While at the White House, Mr. Holmstead worked on a number of issues, but his primary focus was environmental policy and issues, including the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. From 1993 until his EPA appointment, Mr. Holmstead practiced law at the Washington firm of Latham & Watkins. His practice there included a number of environmental issues—including many arising under the Clean Air Act. Mr. Holmstead graduated first in his class at Brigham Young University with degrees in economics and English, and he is a graduate of Yale Law School.

Philip K. Hopke, Ph.D. is the Bayard D. Clarkson Distinguished Professor at Clarkson University and the Director of the Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science. In October 1997, he was appointed by the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a member of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), which is administratively located at EPA under the Science Advisory Board (SAB). Dr. Hopke is presently Chair of the CASAC, and he also chairs the CASAC Subcommittee on Ambient Air Monitoring (AAMS). In addition, he serves as an SAB Board Member. Professor Hopke is the current President of the American Association for Aerosol Research, and was a member of the National Research Council’s Congressionally mandated Committee on Research Priorities for Airborne Particulate Matter and the Committee on Air Quality Management in the United States. He has previously served on five other NRC committees. Professor Hopke received his B.S. in Chemistry from Trinity College (Hartford) and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from Princeton University. Professor Hopke came to Clarkson in 1989 as the Robert A. Plane Professor with a principal appointment in the Department of Chemistry. He has served as Dean of the Graduate School, Chair of the Department of Chemistry, and Head of the Division of Chemical and Physical Sciences before he moved his principal appointment to the Department of Chemical Engineering in 2000.

Jane Q. Koenig, Ph.D. is Professor of Environmental Health in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. She is director of the EPA-funded Northwest Research Center for Particulate Air Pollution and Health, sited at the University of Washington. She has spent her career studying air pollution health. Her research has involved controlled exposures of human subjects (often subjects with asthma) to common air pollutants; epidemiologic studies of associations between air pollution and emergency department visits for asthma, and studies of the effects of air pollutants in cultured human nasal epithelial cells. Dr. Koenig has published many articles on the health effects of outdoor air pollutants. She also has served on several advisory committees for EPA, Puget Sound Air Pollution Control Agency, Mickey Leland Urban Air Toxics Center, and other agencies. Currently, she is involved in research projects on the health effects of particulate matter, especially regarding asthma aggravation.

Petros Koutrakis, Ph.D. is the Head of the Exposure, Epidemiology and Risk Program in the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Director of the EPA/Harvard University Center for Ambient Particle Health Effects. Dr. Koutrakis’ research activities focus on the development of human exposure measurement techniques and the investigation of sources, transport, and the fate of air pollutants. In collaboration with his colleagues in the Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, he has developed ambient particle concentrators and high-volume samplers that can be used to conduct human and animal inhalation studies. He has also developed a personal ozone monitor, a continuous fine particle measurement technique and several other sampling methods for a variety of gaseous and particulate air pollutants. These novel techniques have been used extensively by air pollution scientists and human exposure assessors in United States and worldwide. Dr. Koutrakis has conducted a number of comprehensive air pollution studies in the United States, Canada, Spain, Chile, and Greece that investigate the extent of human exposures to gaseous and particulate air pollutants. Other research interests include the assessment of particulate matter exposures and their effects on the cardiac and pulmonary health. Dr. Koutrakis is a member of national and international committees and the past Technical Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association. He has published over 140 peer-reviewed papers in the areas of air quality, exposure, and health effects assessment and instrumentation.

Morton Lippmann, Ph.D. is Professor of Environmental Medicine at the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine where he has been on its faculty since 1967. He holds a Ph.D. (NYU, 1967) in Environmental Health Science, an S.M. (Harvard University, 1955) in Industrial Hygiene, and a B.Ch.E. (The Cooper Union, 1954) in Chemical Engineering. At NYU, he directs a research program on Human Exposure and Health Effects, and the EPA-supported Particulate Matter Health Effects Research Center. He has been the recipient of awards from ACGIH (Stokinger and Meritorious Achievement), AIHA (Cummings), AAAR (Sinclair) and AAIH (Smythe). Much of this research has been focused on specific chemi cal agents, notably ozone, sulfuric acid, and asbestos. Dr. Lippmann is a past Chairman of: the ACGIH (1982-1983); past President of the International Society of Exposure Analysis (1994-1995), the EPA Science Advisory Board’s Executive Committee (2000-2001); EPA’s Advisory Committee on Indoor Air Quality and Total Human Exposure (1987-1993); EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (1983-1987); and of the NIOSH Board of Scientific Counselors (1991-1993). He has been Chair of the External Scientific Advisory Committee of the Childrens Health Study of air pollution in Southern California at USC (1993-2003) and of the study of the inhalation toxicology of complex air pollutant mixtures at the National Environmental Respiratory Center in Albuquerque (1997-2004). He has also chaired and been a member of numerous National Research Council committees, including committees on the airliner cabin environment and the health of passengers and crew, synthetic vitreous fibers, measurement and control of respirable dust in mines, indoor pollutants, toxicity data elements, and in vivo toxicity testing of complex mixtures. His publications include over 280 research and review papers in the scientific literature and two reference texts on environmental health science.

Michael Lipsett, M.D., J.D. is the chief of the Exposure Assessment Section, Environmental Health Investigations Branch, California Department of Health Services. He previously served as a Public Health Physician with the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, in which capacity he was primarily responsible for developing the medical foundation for California’s ambient air quality standards. He has also served on state and national committees addressing air pollution and health, including most recently the American Heart Association’s Expert Panel on Population and Prevention Science, which developed the AHA’s first position paper on the cardiovascular impacts of air pollution earlier this year. Dr. Lipsett is also an associate clinical professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California—San Francisco School of Medicine. Dr. Lipsett’s principal research interests include air pollution, asthma, and respiratory health.

Sally Liu, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Exposure Assessment and Analysis in the University of Washington’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. She previously taught at the University of South Carolina’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Liu’s largest project (funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) investigated personal exposure to particulate matter among high-risk populations, including those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiovascular diseases. She and her team are examining the relationship between personal exposure and measurements taken at a central monitoring station. They are using recently developed biomarker techniques to track the outdoor contributions to personal exposures. At the EPA-funded Northwest Research Center for Particulate Air Pollution and Health (PM Center), Dr. Liu is co-director of the exposure core and principal investigator of the exposure assessment study project. Dr. Liu also is involved in the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) review of standards for particulate matter. She is a public health representative for the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Agricultural Burning Task Force. Dr. Liu graduated from Harvard University’s School of Public Health in 1994 with a Ph.D. in environmental health and concentrations in exposure assessment, air pollution, and statistical analysis.

Günter Oberdörster, D.V.M., Ph.D. is Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine and Head of the Division of Respiratory Biology & Toxicology at the University of Rochester and Director of the University of Rochester Ultrafine Particle Center. He is known for his research on the effects and underlying mechanisms of lung injury induced by inhaled non-fibrous and fibrous particles, including extrapolation modeling and risk assessment. His studies with ultrafine particles influenced the field of inhalation toxicology, raising awareness of their unique toxicological potential. Dr. Oberdörster earned his D.V.M. and Ph.D. (Pharmacology) from the University of Giessen in Germany. He has served on national and international committees, including: NIEHS study sections, EPA’s Science Advisory Board committees, Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Toxicology Program, NRC’s Committee on Toxicology, TLV Committee of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, several working groups of IARC, WHO consultancies to the governments of Kuwait, Iraq and South Korea, IU-PAC Commission on Toxicology, ad hoc Expert Group for the Chemicals Bureau of the European Commission, and advisory panel of the German Research Association; and he continues to serve on EPA’s CASAC and on NRC’s Committee on Research Priorities for Airborne Particulate Matter. Dr. Oberdörster is a past-president of the Society of Toxicology’s Inhalation Toxicology Specialty Section (ISS) and has been a Board Member of ISAM (1988-1999). He is a recipient of the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize (Germany), the Society of Toxicology’s ISS Career Achievement Award, the Society of Toxicology’s ISS 1997 Paper of the Year Award, and the Thomas T. Mercer Prize: Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Aerosols in Medicine, 2003, awarded jointly by the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) and the International Society of Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM). He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Aerosol Medicine, International Journal of Hygiene & Environmental Health, Environmental Health Perspectives, and Associate Editor of Inhalation Toxicology.

Jonathan M. Samet, M.D., M.S. is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Epidemiology of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Samet received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard College, an M.D. degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and a Master of Science in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. At Johns Hopkins, he chairs the Department of Epidemiology and is Director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control and Co-Director of the Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute. His research has addressed the effects of inhaled pollutants in the general environment and in the workplace. He has written widely on the health effects of active and passive smoking and served as Consultant Editor and Senior Editor for Reports of the Surgeon General on Smoking and Health. He was Chair of the 2002 Working Group for The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that prepared new monographs on active and passive smoking. He has served on the Science Advisory Board for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and was Chairman of the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation Committee VI of the National Research Council. For the National Research Council, he is presently Chairman of the Committee on Research Priorities for Airborne Particulate Matter and of the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. He has been President of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and of the American College of Epidemiology. He is a past Editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology and is currently Editor of Epidemiology. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1997.

Joel Schwartz, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Schwartz’s research on air pollution has examined both acute and chronic effects of air pollution exposure. His research has found that exposure to fine combustion particles in the air at concentrations well below current standards is associated with a range of adverse health effects from increased respiratory symptoms, to increased hospital admissions, to increased deaths. His recent work has been focused on the cardiovascular effects of air pollution, and on factors which modify the response to air pollution; for example, his findings suggest that diabetics are more susceptible. His research also addresses methodological questions regarding the modeling of continuous covariates in epidemiologic studies, both for better covariate control and to more accurately assess the relationship between exposure and response. Another area of research interest is the use of cost benefit analysis to make environmental decisions, including the development of benefit methodologies for assessing the benefits of lead control. Dr. Schwartz is also involved in cost benefit analysis of air pollution control.

Mark J. Utell, M.D. is Professor of Medicine and Environmental Medicine and Director of the Pulmonary/Critical Care and Occupational/Environmental Medicine Divisions at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He is the co-director of the Particulate Matter Research Center funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and a former recipient of the NIEHS Academic Award in Environmental and Occupational Medicine. He received his M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1972 and upon completion of a fellowship in Pulmonary Medicine joined the faculty at the University of Rochester in 1977. Dr. Utell has published extensively on the health effects of inhaled gases, particles, and fibers in the workplace and environment. His research studies have been funded by grants from the federal government through the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), EPA, and NASA, from the Health Effects Institute, Electric Power Research Institute, and by private industry. He currently serves as Chair of the Health Effects Institute’s Research Committee and has served as Chair of the EPA Environmental Health Committee and on the Executive Committee of the EPA Science Advisory Board. Dr. Utell has been a member of the National Research Council’s (NRC) Committee on Research Priorities for Airborne Particulate Matter, the IOM’s Committee to Review the Health Consequences of Service during the Persian Gulf War, and several other NRC Committees. He is on the editorial boards of Environmental Health Perspectives and the Journal of Aerosol Medicine.

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