Science, Policy and Engineering of Hazardous Waste
Lecture Series, Fall 2004, UMass Amherst

September 29, 2004
Future Directions for Hazardous Waste Site Cleanup

William Farland, is Chief Scientist in the U.S. EPA Science Advisor’s Office as well as Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Science in EPA’s Office of Research and Development.  Previously 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 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.  Dr. Farland 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.

October 27, 2004
Environmental Justice and Hazardous Waste Sites - Improved Measurements of Health Outcomes

Paul Mohai is Professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment and Faculty Associate in the Social Environment and Health Program at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Professor Mohai has been studying the pattern of evidence pertaining to the disproportionate burdens of environmental hazards in low-income and people of color communities since the late 1980s. He has also been researching the environmental attitudes, concerns, and actions of African Americans and their influence on the environmental movement. His current research involves national-level studies examining cause and effect relationships in the distribution of environmental hazards by race and class and solving methodological problems in environmental justice research. He is also working with colleagues in the School of Public Health and Institute for Social Research to examine what role environmental factors play in accounting for racial and socioeconomic disparities in health and mortality.

November 18, 2004
Assessing Multiple Exposures and Chemical Mixtures

Raymond S. H. Yang is Professor of Toxicology and Director of Center for Environmental Toxicology and Technology at Colorado State University.  Between July 1990 and June 1995, Dr. Yang served as the Head, Department of Environmental Health, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at  CSU.  Prior to joining CSU in 1990, Dr. Yang spent seven years each in the chemical industry and in the federal government working with the [National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/National Toxicology Program.  Dr. Yang received his B.S. in Biology from the National Taiwan University in 1963; M.S. and Ph.D. in Toxicology/Entomology from North Carolina State University in 1967 and 1970, respectively.  Between 1970 and 1973, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University in Environmental Toxicology.  Between 1973 and 1976, he was Research Associate and then Assistant Professor at the Institute of Comparative and Human Toxicology, Albany Medical College.    Dr. Yang’s research expertise and interests cover many subdisciplines in toxicology, including toxicology of chemical mixtures, toxicologic interactions, physiologically based pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic  (PBPK/PD) modeling, biologically based dose-response (BBDR) modeling, carcinogenesis and neuro-developmental toxicology. 

December 6, 2004
New Approaches to Remediation

Richard Luthy, Silas H. Palmer Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Stanford University.   Dr. Luthy's area of teaching and research is environmental engineering and water quality. His research interests include physicochemical processes and applied aquatic chemistry with application to waste reduction and treatment, and remediation of contaminated soil and sediment. Current projects address the phase partitioning, treatment, and fate of persistent hydrophobic organic compounds. His research emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to understand the environmental behavior and availability of organic contaminants and the application of these approaches to the control of contaminant bioavailability and the improvement of water and sediment quality.  He previously served on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was the Thomas Lord professor of environmental engineering and former head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He chairs the National Research Council's Water Science and Technology Board and was a member of the NRC Committees on Innovative Remediation Technologies and on Intrinsic Remediation. He chaired the NRC study on the bioavailability of contaminants in soils and sediments. He is a past president of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors. He is a registered professional engineer, a diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.