June 21, 2010 Meeting
Panelist and Keynote Bios
Dr. Melvin Andersen
Melvin Andersen, PhD, is Director, Program in Chemical Safety Sciences, The Hamner Institutes for Health Research, Research Triangle Park, NC. Over a nearly 40-year career, he has held positions in toxicology research and research management in the federal government (US Navy, Department of Defense and EPA), in private industry (Vice-President, ICF Kaiser Consulting) and in academia (Colorado State University). His research has consistently focused on computational approaches for dose response modeling and on the application of these models for human health risk assessments with environmental chemicals. Dr. Andersen served on the NRC Committee on Toxicity Testing and Assessment of Environmental Agents (which produced Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century). His current research program looks to implement key recommendations from this report using prototype chemicals acting through specific toxicity pathways. Dr. Andersen is board certified in toxicology and Industrial Hygiene and a fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences. In June 2002, he was recognized as a highly cited scientist by the Institute for Scientific Information (www.ISIHighlyCited.com).
Dr. Christopher P. Austin
Christopher Austin is Director of the NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC) and the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Senior Advisor to the Director for Translational Research at the National Human Genome Research Institute. The NCGC is an ultrahigh-throughput screening, informatics, and chemistry center that profiles small molecule libraries for biological activity using its qHTS technology, and develops novel compounds as probes of biology and starting points for the development of new drugs for rare and neglected diseases. The NCGC also develops new paradigms to increase the efficiency and genome-wide reach of assay, screening, chemistry, and informatics technologies, and is a partner with NTP, EPA, and FDA in the Toxicology in the 21st Century (Tox21) Program.
In his role as Senior Advisor for Translational Research, Dr. Austin was a principal architect of several large initiatives to translate the human genome sequence into biological function and therapeutics, including the NIH Molecular Libraries Initiative, a multifaceted program of small molecule technologies in the public sector, and the Knockout Mouse Project, which is producing knockout mice for all mouse genes. Most recently, he has developed and launched the new NIH TRND program, which will develop small molecule compounds from the lead to clinical proof-of concept stage for rare and neglected diseases.
Before joining NIH in 2002, Dr. Austin directed research programs genomics-based target discovery, pharmacogenomics, and DNA microarray technologies at Merck, with a focus on neuropsychiatric diseases. Dr. Austin received his A.B. in biology summa cum laude from Princeton, and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed clinical training in internal medicine and neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and a postdoctoral fellowship in developmental genetics at Harvard.
Lynn L. Bergeson
Lynn L. Bergeson is Managing Director of Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C), a Washington, D.C. law firm concentrating on conventional and engineered nanoscale chemical, pesticide, and other specialty chemical product approval, regulation, litigation, and associated business issues. Ms. Bergeson is also President of The Acta Group, L.L.C. and The Acta Group EU, Ltd, B&C’s consulting affiliates, with offices in Washington, D.C. and Manchester, U.K., respectively. Ms. Bergeson counsels clients on a wide range of issues pertaining to chemical hazard, exposure and risk assessment, risk communication, and related legal and regulatory aspects of conventional and nanoscale chemical regulatory programs under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation, and on issues pertinent to nanotechnology and other emerging transformative technologies. Ms. Bergeson is listed in Washingtonian’s List of Top Lawyers (2009), The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers (2009-2006), and The Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (2009-2005). Ms. Bergeson is a graduate of Michigan State University (B.A., magna cum laude), and the Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America, where she was a member of the Law Review. She is admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia and several federal circuit courts.
Dr. Steven Bradbury
Dr. Steven Bradbury was named the Director of the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) in June 2010, where he is responsible for the overall leadership and management of the pesticide programs under the authority of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA); the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA); the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA); and the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA). Dr. Bradbury has management and operational responsibilities over EPA’s largest Headquarters’ program office, with approximately 850 employees and a budget of about $150 million. Dr. Bradbury previously served as OPP’s Deputy Director for Programs since January 2009. From 2007 to 2008, Dr. Bradbury was Director of OPP’s Special Review and Reregistration Division, and from 2003 to 2007, he served as Director of OPP’s Environmental Fate and Effects Division. As Director of these two Divisions, Dr. Bradbury led risk managers in the development of regulatory decisions in support of pesticide re-evaluation programs that meet statutory requirements of FFDCA/FQPA and FIFRA, and scientists who prepare pesticide drinking water exposure characterizations and ecological risk assessments. From 1999 to 2002, Dr. Bradbury was the Director of the Mid-Continent Ecology Division in EPA’s Office of Research and Development. Dr. Bradbury joined EPA in 1985 and has also served as Regional Scientist in EPA’s Denver Office, where he helped to establish the Agency’s National Regional Science Council. Dr. Bradbury has a B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Toxicology and Entomology from Iowa State University.
E. Donald Elliott
E. Donald Elliott is a leading academic expert on improving the relationship between law and science, specializing in environmental law and chemical regulation. He is currently Professor (Adjunct) of Law, Yale Law School and Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches a course comparing chemical regulation in the U.S. and EU. He has been on the Yale Law School faculty since 1981, and is the author of over 60 articles. He teaches in the fields of environmental law, administrative law and law and science, and has been a member of the Board of Environmental Studies and Toxicology, National Research Council since 2001.
Mr. Elliott also practices law and heads the Environment, Health and Safety department worldwide of a 600-lawyer international law firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, and is a partner in its DC office. Formerly Mr. Elliott was Assistant Administrator and General Counsel, U.S. Environment Protection Agency, 1989-1991. In 1993, he was named to the first endowed chair in environmental law and policy at any major American law school, the Julien and Virginia Cornell Chair in Environmental Law and Litigation at Yale Law School.
Mr. Elliott has served as a consultant on improving the relationship of law and science to the Federal Courts Study Committee which was chartered by Congress to make recommendations for improving the federal courts, and to Carnegie Commission for Law, Science and Government. He co-chaired the National Environmental Policy Institute’s Committee on improving science at EPA. He serves on the boards of the Environmental Law Institute and the Center for Clean Air Policy. In 1991, the National Law Journal named him as one of the country’s top 25 environmental lawyers and he is listed in Chambers USA: Leading Lawyers for Business, Best Lawyers in America, DC Superlawyers, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in the World.
Mr. Elliott graduated B.A. (1970) summa cum laude and J.D. (first in class; 1974), from Yale University. Following graduation he was a law clerk for the Honorable Judge Gerhard Gesell in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and for the Honorable Chief Judge David Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Dr. John Groopman
Dr. Groopman’s research involves the development, validation and application of molecular biomarkers of exposure, dose, and effect from environmental carcinogens to high-risk populations. The environmental carcinogens studied include agents that are naturally occurring in the diet as well as those produced as a result of cooking practices. A major emphasis of the research has been in the elucidation of the role of aflatoxins, a common contaminate of the food supply, in the induction of liver cancer in high-risk populations living in Asia and Africa. This work has led to the identification of a very strong chemical-viral interaction between aflatoxin and the human hepatitis B virus in the induction of liver cancer. These biomarkers have also been used in many collaborative molecular epidemiology studies of liver cancer risk and recently employed to assess the efficacy of a number of chemopreventive agents in trials in high-risk aflatoxin-hepatitis B virus exposed populations. This research is now being extended to develop genetic biomarkers of p53 mutations and viral mutations in human samples as early detection of disease biomarkers using a novel mass spectroscopy based method for genotyping developed in the laboratory. Thus, the research focuses on the translation of mechanistic research to public health based prevention strategies.
Dr. Groopman received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was also a post-doctoral fellow at MIT. He received further training as a staff fellow at the National Cancer Institute in the Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis. Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins in 1989, Dr. Groopman was the Associate Dean at the Boston University School of Public Health. In 1992 he was appointed Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of public health. He has also maintained focused interests in cancer research and has appointments in the Department of Oncology in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he is the Associate Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Groopman also served as a member of the National Advisory Council for the NIEHS and numerous other committees at the national and international level. This collaborative work has led to over 230 publications in the scientific literature. Dr. Groopman has a longstanding record of commitment to interdisciplinary and translational research in oncology and public health.
Julia A. Hatcher
Julia (Julie) Hatcher is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins, focusing on the environmental, health, safety and liability (EHSL) area. Ms. Hatcher has been recognized as a leading practitioner in Washington, D.C. by Chambers & Partners’ 2009 Global Directory and the 2008 Chambers USA legal guide. She currently co-chairs the firm’s Environment, Land & Resources Department International Practice Committee.
Ms. Hatcher has extensive experience representing clients on EHSL matters ranging from compliance advice to rulemaking to agency enforcement proceedings to federal court litigation. She has deep expertise in federal chemical control laws—including the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Superfund law (CERCLA), the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act—as well as in related state laws for chemical regulation and “toxic tort” liability. Ms. Hatcher’s practice also extends to international chemical control requirements, including in particular the new European Union REACH law and treaties, such as the Stockholm Convention and LRTAP. Ms. Hatcher collaborates regularly on these international matters with Latham & Watkins colleagues in offices outside of the United States. Ms. Hatcher also has handled matters involving the Clean Air Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the federal transportation statutes.
Ms. Hatcher appears regularly before the US Environmental Protection Agency and state counterpart agencies. She also has worked with other regulatory bodies, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Department of Transportation, the Consumer Products Safety Commission, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board and the Homeland Security Department.
Ms. Hatcher possesses particular expertise advising both individual companies and industry groups on forward-looking management of regulatory, public policy and litigation risks with reference not only to current legal requirements, but also to emerging areas, such as the measurement of chemicals in the body, nanotechnology and climate change. She also has worked extensively with major semiconductor, electronics and chemical companies in connection with Clean Air Act rulemakings, policy development, compliance issues, enforcement matters and appellate litigation arising under the PSD, NSR and Title V permitting programs as well as under Title III (air toxics) and Title VI (ODS replacements). In this capacity, Ms. Hatcher has been instrumental in pursuing innovative performance-based regulatory approaches that provide the flexibility necessary for technologically dynamic industries to compete in the global marketplace and yet to remain environmentally progressive.
Prior to practicing law, Ms. Hatcher served as a law clerk intern for the Honorable Chief Judge Harry T. Edwards of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Kathy Hessler
Kathy Hessler is a clinical professor of law and director of the only animal law clinic in the country. She is the first faculty member hired to teach animal law full time in a law school. She received her LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center and graduated with a J.D. from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary.
Prior to teaching at Lewis & Clark, Professor Hessler taught in clinical programs at Case Western Reserve University Law School, Cornell Law School, the University of Dayton Law School, the Capital University School of Law, and Georgetown University Law Center.
She has been an animal activist and vegan since the late 1980′s. She has been an advisor to the journal Animal Law since 1998, she coaches the animal moot court teams, and has been teaching Animal Law directly for 8 years and as a part of nonviolence courses beginning in 1989. She was a board member with ALDF and helped found the Animal Law Committee of the Cuyahoga County Bar. She is the chair and a founder of the Animal Law Section of the American Association of Law Schools. She co-authored the amicus brief submitted in the U.S. v. Stevens case, on behalf of 45 law professors who teach animal law. She has written law review articles and is writing two books on animal law.
Professor Hessler lectures widely on animal law and animal law education issues and has spoken at Harvard and Yale as well as over a dozen other law schools in the US and in Canada and Japan.
Dr. Michael Holsapple
Dr. Holsapple has published over one hundred and fifty manuscripts and chapters. He received his graduate training in Pharmacology and Toxicology from Purdue University, having earned an M.S. in 1978 and a Ph.D. in 1981. After completing 2 years of post-doctoral training at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, he was appointed an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at MCV/VCU. He was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in 1989. Dr. Holsapple served as the Director of his department’s graduate program (i.e., 35-40 doctoral candidates) from 1987 until 1991, and he received the “Professor of the Year Award” in his department in 1989. During his academic career at MCV/VCU, Dr. Holsapple served as the advisor for 8 Ph.D. and M.S. candidates, and as a member of the doctoral dissertation committee for 21 other students.
Dr. Holsapple joined the Toxicology, Environmental Research and Consulting Laboratories at the Dow Chemical Company in June of 1994 and he was promoted to Scientist in June of 2000. His responsibilities included serving as the Technical Leader of both the Immunotoxicology and the Respiratory Toxicology groups.
Dr. Holsapple left Dow to join the staff of the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI), the global branch of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), in October of 2002. He currently serves as the Executive Director of HESI. During his time with HESI, Dr. Holsapple has facilitated the organization’s emergence as a recognized global leader in advancing the state-of-the-science of safety and risk assessment.
Dr. Holsapple is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Michigan State University (MSU). He is a member of the American College of Toxicology (ACT) and the Society of Toxicology (SOT). He is a charter member of the Immunotoxicology Specialty Section in the SOT. In recognition of his contributions to toxicology, Dr. Holsapple received the SOT Achievement Award in 1992. He also received the SOT Colgate-Palmolive Visiting Professorship in 1996, which was hosted by Mississippi State University. The goal of this award is to emphasize the contributions and importance of in vitro toxicology. In recognition of his contributions to immunotoxicology, Dr. Holsapple received the Vos Award – Career Achievement in Immunotoxicology in 2009. He was elected to the SOT Nominating Committee for 1999-2000, as a Councilor in the Michigan Regional Chapter of the SOT (MI-SOT) in 1998–2000, as a Councilor in the ACT for 2003-2006, and as a Councilor in the SOT for 2005-2007. He was elected a ‘fellow’ in the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (A.T.S.) in 2006. Dr. Holsapple was elected into the Presidential track of the SOT in 2008, and currently serves as the Society’s President.
Dr. David Jacobson-Kram
David Jacobson-Kram received his Ph.D. in embryology from the University of Connecticut; he then went on to serve as a staff fellow at the National Institute on Aging. After leaving N.I.H., Dr. Jacobson-Kram joined the faculty of George Washington University School of Medicine and then later, Johns Hopkins University Oncology Center. During this same period he served, on a part-time basis, as a geneticist in the Office of Toxic Substances at the Environmental Protection Agency and as Acting Branch Chief in EPA’s Office of Research and Development.
Dr. Jacobson-Kram served as the VP of the Toxicology and Laboratory Animal Health Division at BioReliance Corporation, a contract testing laboratory from 1988 until 2003. Currently, he serves as the Associate Director of Pharmacology and Toxicology in FDA’s Office of New Drugs. Over the past twenty years he has served as principal and co-principal investigator on several N.I.H. grants and government contracts and published widely in the areas of genetic and molecular toxicology.
Dr. Jacobson-Kram has served as council member, treasurer and chairman of the Genetic Toxicology Association, executive council member to the Environmental Mutagen Society, Editor of Cell Biology and Toxicology, and as a member of N.I.H. special study sections. In 1996 he became a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology (DABT).
Dr. Daniel Krewski
Daniel Krewski is Professor of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa, where he also serves as Scientific Director of the McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment. His research interests include epidemiology, biostatistics, health risk assessment, and risk management. He is a fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis, the American Statistical Association, and a national affiliate of the US National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Krewski holds the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Chair in Risk Science at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Krewski chaired the Committee on Toxicity Testing and Assessment of Environmental Agents that in 2007 issued Toxicity Testing in the Twenty-first Century: A Vision and a Strategy.
Dr. Robert Landsiedel
Robert Landsiedel studied chemistry, food chemistry and toxicology in Kaiserslautern, Mainz, Potsdam and Leipzig. He received his PhD in Chemistry in 1997, his American Board of Toxicology certification in 2003 and his European toxicologist registration in 2000.
Robert Landsiedel worked for the Environmental Ministry in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany before joining BASF in 1999 where he had assignments in product development, regulatory toxicology and regulatory affairs in Ludwigshafen (Germany), Raleigh, NC and Tokyo (Japan). Since 2006 he has been heading the Short-term Toxicology unit at BASF in Ludwigshafen (Germany) including laboratories for routine testing of acute skin and eye toxicity, inhalation toxicity, genotoxicity, alternative methods and biokinetics and metabolism. His group is also actively participating in numerous research projects (corporate and publicly-funded) on alternative methods and on nanotoxicology.
Dr. Paul Locke
Paul Locke, an environmental health scientist and attorney, is an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Division of Toxicology. He holds an MPH from Yale University School of Medicine, a DrPH from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and a JD degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law. Prior to joining the Department of Environmental Health, he was the Deputy Director of the Pew Environmental Health Commission. Among other things, the Commission spearheaded efforts to establish a nationwide health tracking system at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Locke’s research and practice focus on how decision makers use environmental health science and toxicology in regulation and policy-making and how environmental health sciences influence the policy-making process. His areas of study include radiation protection and alternatives to animal testing in biomedical research, with particular emphasis on regulatory toxicology. He is an expert in the growing field of humane sciences law and policy, an interdisciplinary area of research focusing on how policy and legal institutions influence the development implementation, use, validation and regulatory acceptance of alternatives to animals in biomedical research. More particularly, Dr. Locke is studying what policy and legal changes (if any) will be necessary to implement the National Academy of Sciences recent report Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and A Strategy.
Dr. Locke is co-director of the Johns Hopkins certificate program in Humane Science and Toxicology and a member of the faculty of Hopkins’ Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. He co-teaches a course on animals in research that focuses on alternatives. Dr. Locke is a member of the DC Bar’s Animal Law Committee and the editorial board of Risk Analysis: An International Journal. He has served on five National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council expert committees, including the Committee to Update the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Dr. Locke is admitted to practice law before the bars of the states of New York and New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and the United States Supreme Court.
Hon. Stephen A. Owens
Steve Owens is the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) and is responsible for managing the Nation’s regulatory and scientific programs on pesticides and industrial chemicals, as well as overseeing many collaborative pollution prevention programs. Mr. Owens was nominated by President Obama in April 2009 and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July 2009.
Prior to becoming the Assistant Administrator for OCSPP, Mr. Owens served as Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). Appointed by Governor Janet Napolitano in January 2003, Mr. Owens was the longest-serving Director in ADEQ history, providing executive leadership and setting overall agency policy and priorities for the department. As ADEQ Director, Mr. Owens made protecting children from toxic exposures a top priority, and among many other initiatives, helped launch Arizona’s Children’s Environmental Health Project and established an Office of Children’s Environmental Health at the department.
Before joining ADEQ, Mr. Owens was a practicing environmental attorney in Phoenix, Arizona, for 14 years. Mr. Owens received a bachelor’s degree with honors from Brown University and a law degree from Vanderbilt Law School, where he was Editor in Chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review. From 1982-1984 Mr. Owens served as Counsel to the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology. During 1985-1988, he was Chief Counsel and later State Director for then-U.S. Senator Al Gore.
Throughout his career before joining EPA, Mr. Owens served on numerous environmental panels, including EPA’s Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, the Phoenix Environmental Quality Commission, the Clean & Diversified Energy Advisory Committee of the Western Governors Association, and the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation, which reviews environmental matters arising under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Mr. Owens also served as President of the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS).
Heather White
Heather White is Chief of Staff and General Counsel for Environmental Working Group. Prior to joining EWG, Ms. White served as Director of Education Advocacy for the National Wildlife Federation, Counsel for energy and environment issues for Senator Russ Feingold, General Counsel to EWG, a Florida Recount attorney for Gore 2000, Deputy Director for Women’s Outreach for Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential campaign, and an associate in the law firm of Bass, Berry & Sims in Nashville. Ms. White holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia in environmental science, and a J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law.
Dr. Lauren Zeise
Lauren Zeise is Chief of the Reproductive and Cancer Hazard Assessment Branch of the California Environmental Protection Agency. She oversees or is otherwise involved in a variety of California’s risk assessment activities, including cancer and reproductive toxicant assessments; development of frameworks and methodologies for assessing cumulative impact, nanotechnology, green chemistry/safer alternatives, and susceptible populations; the California Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program; and health risk characterizations for environmental media, food, fuels and consumer products. Dr. Zeise has served on various advisory boards of the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Technology Assessment, International Agency for Research on Cancer, and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. As a member of numerous National Academy of Science committees, she has coauthored Academy reports on a variety of topics related to environmental and public health, including Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century; Science and Decisions: Advancing Risk Assessment; and Understanding Risk: Informing Decisions in a Democratic Society. Dr. Zeise received her Ph.D. from Harvard University.
June 22, 2010 Meeting – Speaker Bios
Elizabeth (Liz) Dowdeswell
Elizabeth Dowdeswell’s eclectic public service career has spanned provincial, federal and international borders and transcended traditional disciplinary lines. She is currently the President and CEO of the Council of Canadian Academies. Her previous consulting practice tackled complex issues of social importance, in particular linking the contributions of science and technology to public policy. She served as founding President & CEO of Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) which resulted in a government decision on the long term management of Canada’s used nuclear fuel.
Ms. Dowdeswell has been Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program and Undersecretary General of the United Nations, Assistant Deputy Minister of Environment Canada, responsible for the national weather and atmospheric agency, including negotiating the Framework Convention on Climate Change. She led a number of public inquiries into such politically sensitive issues as Canada’s unemployment benefits program and federal water policy. Her early career included terms as Deputy Minister of Culture and Youth for the Province of Saskatchewan, educational consultant, university lecturer and high-school teacher.
She is also an adjunct professor in public health at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University of Toronto. Ms. Dowdeswell is a Director on the Board of several corporations and contributes in an advisory capacity to a number of Canadian and international organizations.
Dr. Thomas Hartung
Thomas Hartung, MD, PhD is the new Director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) and the inaugural Doerenkamp-Zbinden Chair for Evidence-Based Toxicology in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In 1991 Dr. Hartung received a PhD in Biochemical Pharmacology from the University of Konstanz, Germany, and an MD in Toxicology in 1992 from the University of Tubingen. He completed his medical internship at the University of Freiburg in surgery at the hospital of Singen, Germany.
Dr. Hartung joined the faculty at the University of Konstanz in 1994, where he served as an Assistant Professor of Biochemical Pharmacology until 1999, and then as an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology until 2002. He has been an honorary full professor of Pharmacology at Konstanz since 2003. From 1996 to 2002, Dr. Hartung also served as the CEO of the Steinbeis Technology Transfer Center for In Vitro Pharmacology and Toxicology (InPuT).
In 2002, Dr. Hartung became the Head of the European Centre for Alternative Methods (ECVAM) at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Italy. As Head of ECVAM, he was integral in accelerating the alternative methods validation process, and in establishing a network of more than 400 experts from all stakeholder groups to facilitate global regulatory harmonization in toxicity testing.
Dr. Astrid-Christina Koch
Astrid-Christina Koch is Science Counselor of the “Science,Technology and Education” section at the Delegation of the European Commission (EC) in Washington DC. She works towards better awareness of funding opportunities, bringing teams together to strengthen transatlantic research cooperation and promotes networking and mobility of researchers. Prior to this assignment she was employed as Program Officer for Advanced Materials in Research Directorate of the European Commission. Before joining the Commission she worked as senior managing scientific officer in the German Ministry of Finance and as lecturer and chemist at the German Customs Science & Training Center. Astrid holds a Ph.D. in Natural Sciences from Kiel University.
Dr. Marcel Leist
Marcel Leist holds an MSc from the University of Surrey in Toxicology and a PhD in Biochemical Pharmacology. He was assistant/associate professor of Toxicology at the University of Konstanz (Konstanz, D) from 1995-2000. Until 2006 he worked on a broad range of toxicological and pharmacological projects in the mid-size (5000 employees) pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck A/S (Copenhagen, DK) as Head of Department and senior research manager. Since 2006, he has held the Doerenkamp-Zbinden chair for alternative in vitro methods as full professor at the University of Konstanz. He published > 120 peer-reviewed papers and is a member of several editorial and scientific advisory boards.
Dr. Sylvie Tissot
Sylvie Tissot is the head of the unit on expertise and evaluation in toxicology at INERIS (French institute for industrial risks and environment). Sylvie TISSOT is a doctor of veterinary medicine with a certificate in toxicology. Her background is mainly inhalation toxicology. She has also been the French national coordinator for the OECD test guidelines program since 1999. Sylvie TISSOT has been involved in several initiatives in the area of test guidelines and the 3Rs application. She participated in the REACH implementation project on information requirements and in particular on the integrated testing strategy. At French level, she works closely with researchers to promote the development, the validation and the implementation of the alternative methods within the French working group on alternatives methods.
Dr. Horst Wenck
Horst Wenck is Corporate Vice President for Research of the Beiersdorf Group in Hamburg, Germany. He largely contributes to the mid to long term pipeline of the company by managing a portfolio of internal projects and external co-operations. This involves the development and employment of techniques in the fields of biology, molecular biology, microbiology, bioengineering and microscopy. These approaches are used to comprehensively investigate skin biology and how it is affected by cosmetic, dermatological and wound care products. A special emphasis is put on the targeted identification and development of new active ingredients for topical use.
Horst Wenck joined Beiersdorf in 1987 after having earned his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Hamburg. He assumed responsibility for product development in the United States in 1988 and returned to the Beiersdorf’s corporate R&D in 1991. He then ran a variety of product and technology development as well as testing departments until he stepped into his current position in 2000.
Horst Wenck is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology, the Society for Investigative Dermatology and the chairman of the Colipa Strategic Project Team on Alternatives to Animal Testing (SPT AAT). In this role he is responsible for coordinating the activities of the European cosmetic industry to completely eliminate the need of any animal testing in the development of novel cosmetic ingredients, which includes a comprehensive science program (“SCAAT program”) with all its legal, regulatory and communication aspects.
