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Speaker Profiles
Bios of Presenters
Bernstein Symposium
October 25th & 26th
Tony Collings
Prior to coming to the University of Michigan, Professor Collings worked for CNN both as a Washington Correspondent, and a Rome Bureau Chief. During his career, he served as Bureau Chief with Newsweek in both London and Bonn and received numerous awards, including a National Headliner Award for his coverage of the Iran-Contra Affair and an Emmy for team coverage of the bombing of Oklahoma City. In 2001 Professor Collings published his first book, Words of Fire: Independent Journalists Who Challenge Dictators, Drug Lords and Other Enemies of a Free Press (New York University Press).
John M. Balbus
John M. Balbus MD MPH is a Chief Health Scientist and Program Director at Environmental Defense, a national non-profit dedicated to protecting the environment. Prior to joining Environmental Defense, Dr. Balbus was on the faculty at the George Washington University Schools of Medicine and Public Health and Health Services, where he was founding director of the Center for Risk Science and Public Health and founding co-director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment. He is currently a member of the National Academy of Science Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research and Medicine, and the EPA Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee. Dr. Balbus works and consults on a broad range of environmental health issues, including air pollution, built environment and health, climate change, nanotechnology, toxicology, and antibiotic resistance.
David Garabrant
Professor Garabrant is a physician who has conducted research in occupational and environmental epidemiology for the past 25 years. He is board certified in internal medicine, occupational medicine, and preventive medicine. Since joining the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1988, he has served as Director of the Occupational Medicine Program, Director of the Occupational Health Program, Director of the Center for Occupational Health and Safety Engineering, and Director of the Cancer Prevention Training Program. Currently he directs the curriculum in occupational and environmental epidemiology. He was the founding director of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center.
John Graham
John D. Graham, Ph.D. assumed the Deanship of PRGS in March 2006 and is the third Dean in the School's 35-year history. He also holds an endowed RAND Chair in Policy Analysis. Prior to joining RAND, Dean Graham served in the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from 2001 to 2006. As the Senate-confirmed Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Dr. Graham led a staff of fifty career policy analysts who reviewed major regulatory proposals from Cabinet agencies. Prior to his role at OMB, Dr. Graham was a tenured Professor of Policy and Decision Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Graham earned his BA from Wake Forest University, his MA from Duke University and his Ph.D. from Carnegie-Mellon University. He served as a pre-doctoral fellow at the Brookings Institution and as a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Graham has written seven books and more than 100 scientific articles and is best known for his scholarship on automotive safety and environmental policy. He was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is an avid golfer and bridge player.
George M. Gray
On November 1, 2005, Dr. George Gray was sworn in to serve as the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development (ORD) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. ORD is the 1,900-person, $600 million science and technology arm of EPA. Dr. Gray was appointed to this position by President George W. Bush and confirmed—by unanimous consent—by the U.S. Senate. EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson appointed Dr. Gray to serve as EPA Science Advisor on January 24, 2006.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency relies on sound science to safeguard both human health and the environment. ORD's leading-edge research helps provide the solid underpinning of science and technology for the Agency. ORD conducts research on ways to prevent pollution, protect human health, and reduce risk. The work at ORD laboratories, research centers, and offices across the country helps improve the quality of air, water, soil, and the way we use resources. Applied science at ORD builds our understanding of how to protect and enhance the relationship between humans and the ecosystems of Earth.
Prior to joining EPA George was a member of the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health and Executive Director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. His research focused on the scientific basis of human health risk assessment, on methods for characterizing and communicating risks, and on identifying and evaluating risk/risk tradeoffs in public health protection. George professional service has included membership on the National Advisory Health Sciences Council of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Food and Drug Administration Advisory Committees and a National Academy of Science/Institute of Medicine panel along with active participation in the Society for Risk Analysis and the Society of Toxicology. George has a B.S. degree in biology from the University of Michigan and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in toxicology from the University of Rochester.
He and his wife, Ann, and their two children make their home in McLean, Virginia.
ORD's Mission is to perform research and development to identify, understand, and solve current and future environmental problems; to provide responsive technical support to EPA's mission; integrate the work of ORD's scientific partners (other agencies, nations, private sector organizations, and academia); and to provide leadership in addressing emerging environmental issues and in advancing the science and technology of risk assessment and risk management.
Richard Harris
Award-winning journalist Richard Harris reports on science issues for NPR's newsmagazines Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.
Harris, who joined NPR in 1986, has traveled to the ends of the earth for NPR, reporting from the South Pole, the Galapagos Islands, Beijing during the SARS epidemic, the center of Greenland, the Amazon rain forest, and the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro (for a story about tuberculosis).
In 2002, Harris was elected an honorary member of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society. In 1999, the Council of Scientific Society Presidents bestowed on him the Sagan Award for improving the public understanding of science. That same year, he also was given the American Medical Writers Association's Walter C. Alvarez Memorial Award. In 1995, he earned the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Whitaker Science Journalism Award for his coverage of endocrine disrupters.
Also in 1995, Harris shared a Peabody Award for investigative reporting about the tobacco industry. He also won the 1994 Aviation/Space Writers Association Gold Award for his coverage of the first Hubble Space Telescope repair mission. In 1994 Harris received the Cindy Award from the Association of Visual Communicators for a story on the ecological impact of alien species coming to North America.
In 1992 Harris was awarded the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory's Lewis Thomas Award for coverage of the life sciences. In 1991 he was presented with the IEEE/USA Activities Award for Distinguished Literary Contributions Furthering Public Understanding of the Profession.
Harris collaborated with several colleagues on NPR's 1989 series "AIDS in Black America," which won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton, a first place award from the National Association of Black Journalists, and an Ohio State Award.
In 1988, Harris won the American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Award for his report, "Anti-Noise: Can Technology Turn Noise into Quiet?" which explored a revolutionary technology that uses computer-generated noise to cancel out, not just mask, unwanted noise.
Before joining NPR, Harris was a science writer for the San Francisco Examiner. From 1981 to 1983, Harris was a staff writer at The Tri-Valley Herald in Livermore, California, covering science, technology, and health issues. Under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Harris spent the summer of 1980 as a Mass Media Science Fellow reporting on science issues for The Washington Star, in Washington, D.C.
Harris is co-founder of the Washington, DC, Area Science Writers Association, as well as past president of the National Association of Science Writers.
A California native, Harris was valedictorian of his college graduating class at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1980. He earned his bachelor's degree in biology, with highest honors.
Howard Hu
Dr. Hu is a physician board-certified in internal medicine and occupational/environmental medicine who also holds a doctoral degree in epidemiology. Until mid-2006, he was Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Harvard School of Public Health, Director of the Harvard Residency Program in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Director of the Harvard Metals Epidemiology Research Group, Director of the Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research, Associate Director of the Harvard NIEHS Center and Associate Physician at the Channing Laboratory of the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He taught the main introductory courses in Environmental Health and Medicine at the Harvard School of Public Health for 16 years. On 9/1/06, Dr. Hu assumed the position of Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Professor of Environmental Health, Epidemiology, and Medicine at the University of Michigan Schools of Public Health and Medicine. Dr. Hu continues his research on metals toxicity by co-directing, with Dr. Robert Wright, what is now the Michigan-Harvard Metals Epidemiology Research Group, which is engaged in multiple NIH- and EPA-funded epidemiologic investigations of the contribution of metals exposure and genetics to the causation of chronic diseases in adults and impaired development in children. Dr. Hu also continues to co-direct, with Dr. Joseph Brain, a NIEHS/EPA-supported Children's Center for Environmental Health and Disease Prevention , a multidisciplinary program project focused on elucidating the potential toxicity of metal mixtures in mining waste.
In addition to the toxicity of metals, Dr. Hu's research interests encompass clinical syndromes such as idiopathic environmental intolerances (chemical sensitivities) and emerging children's environmental health issues such as neonatal exposure to phthalates. He has authored or co-authored over 200 scientific papers and book chapters and co-edited or co-authored 7 books.
Dr. Hu was the founding Medical Editor (and continues as the Associate Medical Editor) of Environmental Health Perspectives, the official journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Among the awards and honors Dr. Hu has received have been the 1994 Will Solimene Award of Excellence, American Medical Writers Association, the 1997 Alice Hamilton Lectureship at the University of California at San Francisco, the 1998 First Prize for Best Infant Nutrition Research from the Instituto Danone of Mexico, the 1999 NIEHS Scientific Advance of the Year, the 2000 Hoopes prize for mentorship of environmental research, a Senior United States Faculty Fulbright Award to work as a scholar in India 2000-2001, the 2005 Adolph Kammer award for authorship by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and the 2006 Harriett Hardy award from the New England College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Dr. Hu has served on three fact-finding missions and on the Board of Directors for Physicians for Human Rights and in 1992-1995 was the Chair of the Commission for Research on the Health and Environmental Effects of Nuclear Weapons Production and Testing for the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW; Nobel Peace Prize, 1985).
Dan Kahan
Dan Kahan is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He is the lead investigator in the Cultural Cognition Project, a team of scholars from diverse disciplines who are studying the influence of group values on the formation of risk perceptions. In addition to risk perception, his areas of research include criminal law and evidence.
Paula Lantz
Dr. Paula Lantz, a social epidemiologist, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Management and Policy; she is also a Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research. Prior positions include working as an epidemiologist for the Wisconsin Division of Health and as a senior researcher for Marshfield Clinic. She is the director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan. Dr. Lantz's main areas of research interest are policy issues in women's health and child health, clinical preventive services (such as cancer screening and prenatal care), and social inequalities in health.
Andrew D. Maynard
Dr. Andrew Maynard is the Chief Science Advisor to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies—an initiative dedicated to helping business, government and the public anticipate and manage possible health and environmental implications of nanotechnology. Dr. Maynard is considered one of the foremost international experts on addressing possible nanotechnology risks and developing safe nanotechnologies. As well as publishing extensively in the scientific literature, Dr. Maynard is a well-known international speaker on nanotechnology, and frequently appears in print and on radio and television.
Dr. Maynard trained as a physicist at Birmingham University in the UK. After completing a Ph.D. in ultrafine aerosol analysis at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University (UK), he joined the Aerosols research group of the UK Health and Safety Executive, where he led research into aerosol behavior and characterization.
In 2000, Dr. Maynard joined the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Maynard was instrumental in establishing the NIOSH nanotechnology research initiative, which continues to lead efforts to identify, assess and address the potential impacts of nanotechnology in the workplace. Dr. Maynard also represented NIOSH on the Nanomaterial Science, Engineering and Technology subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council (NSET), and he co-chaired the Nanotechnology Health and Environment Implications (NEHI) working group of NSET. Both are a part of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), the federal research and development program established to coordinate the U.S. government’s annual $1 billion investment in nanoscale science, engineering, and technology.
Dr Maynard continues to work closely with many organizations and initiatives on the responsible and sustainable development of nanotechnology. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Council On Nanotechnology (ICON), he has chaired the International Standards Organization Working Group on size selective sampling in the workplace, and he has been involved in the organization of many international meetings on nanotechnology. Dr. Maynard has testified before the U.S. House Committee on Science on nanotechnology policy, and is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Nanotechnology Technical Advisory Group. Dr Maynard holds an Associate Professorship at the University of Cincinnati, is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, U.K., and has authored or co-authored over 90 scholarly publications.
Günter Oberdörster
Dr. Oberdörster earned his D.V.M. and Ph.D. (Pharmacology) from the University of Giessen in Germany and is Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester, Director of the University of Rochester Ultrafine Particle Center, PI of a Multidisciplinary Research Initiative in Nanotoxicology and Head of the Pulmonary Core of the NIEHS Center Grant. His research includes 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 the unique biokinetics and toxicological potential of nano-sized particles.
Martin A. Philbert
Dr. Philbert is a Professor of Toxicology, Director of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center, and Senior Associate Dean for Research at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. His research focuses on the development of flexible polymer nanoplatforms for optical sensing of ions and small molecules and the early detection and treatment of tumors. Other research interests include the mitochondrial mechanisms of chemically-induced neuropathic states. Dr. Philbert serves on the National Advisory Environmental Health Council of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and provides consultation to Federal agencies on the potential toxicity of nanotechnologies.
Erich Pica
Erich Pica is the Director of the Economic Program at Friends of the Earth. He has co-authored the Green Scissors Report, Trails of Destruction, and Running on Empty. In the political arena, Erich has worked both in the field and within the confines of the US Senate. Erich acted as a field organizer in the state of Michigan, coordinating local activities with advance staff during the 1996 Presidential Campaign. He has also worked on Capitol Hill with the offices of US Senator Carl Levin, where he was responsible for researching and analyzing legislation on environmental issues. Erich has extensive experience in the field of environmental planning, having worked on several environmental planning boards in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Joel Schwartz
Joel Schwartz PhD is Professor of Environmental Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and Director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. His work has been instrumental in the removal of lead from gasoline, and the setting of particulate air pollution standards around the world. In 1991 Dr. Schwartz, then with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was the first federal employee to receive the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Award. Dr. Schwartz’s current research interests include studies of pollution by lead and other heavy metals, water and air pollutants, studies of gene-environment interactions and epigenetic phenomena in environmental health, cost-benefit analysis, and risk assessment.
Joe Schwarz
John J.H. “Joe” Schwarz MD is the Chairman of the Board of the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan (UM) and also teaches at the UM Ford School of Public Policy. He has been a practicing physician for 33 years and continues to reside and to practice in his hometown of Battle Creek. From 1965 through 1970, he served in Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, and a second tour in Vietnam, first with the U.S. Navy, then with the C.I.A. Dr. Schwarz has served as Mayor of Battle Creek, in the Michigan Senate, and in the U.S. House of Representatives. Since leaving Congress, he has been appointed to the Governor’s Emergency Financial Advisory Panel, the Secretary of Defense Panel investigating Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and he chairs a panel evaluating health care and health profession education in Southeast Michigan appointed by the Governor, the Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce, and Detroit Renaissance.
David B. Warheit
David B. Warheit graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with a BA in Psychology. He received his PhD in Physiology from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. Subsequently, he was awarded an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship, and 2 years later, a Parker Francis Pulmonary Fellowship, both of which he took to NIEHS to study mechanisms of asbestos-related lung disease with Arnold Brody. In 1984, he moved to DuPont Haskell Laboratory to develop a pulmonary toxicology research laboratory. His major research interests are pulmonary toxicological mechanisms and corresponding risk related to inhaled particulates, fibers and nanomaterials. He is the author/co-author of > 100 publications and has been the recipient of the ILSI Kenneth Morgareidge Award (1993 - Hannover, Germany) for contributions in Toxicology by a Young Investigator and the Robert A. Scala Award and Lectureship in Toxicology (2000). He has also attained Diplomat status of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (2000) and the American Board of Toxicology (1988). He has served and currently serves on NIH review committees (NIH SBIR, NIH Bioengineering) and has participated on working groups at IARC, ECETOC, OECD, ILSI RSI and ILSI-HESI and the National Academy of Sciences, as well as several journal editorial boards. (Including current Associate Editor – Inhalation Toxicology and Toxicological Sciences), Particle and Fibre Toxicology and Nano Letters. Currently he is the chairman of the ECETOC (European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals) Task force on “Health and Environmental Safety of Nanomaterials”, and serves on the NIOSH Board of Scientific Counselors and National Toxicology Program - Nano Working Group.
Christine Todd Whitman
Christine Todd Whitman is the President of The Whitman Strategy Group, a consulting firm that specializes in government relations, energy and environmental issues. She is also the author of the New York Times best seller, It’s My Party Too, published in January of 2005 and released in paperback in March 2006. Governor Whitman founded a political action committee by the same name to support Republican candidates.
In March of 2007, Governor Whitman recruited Senator John Danforth and Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and together these three leaders revitalized the Republican Leadership Council (RLC) by merging it with It’s My Party Too. The RLC continues to support the mission of supporting fiscally conservative, socially tolerant candidates and reclaiming the word Republican.
Governor Whitman served in the cabinet of President George W. Bush as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from January of 2001 until June of 2003. She was the 50th Governor of the State of New Jersey, serving as its first woman governor from 1994 until 2001.
As Governor, Christie Whitman earned praise from both Republicans and Democrats for her commitment to preserve a record amount of New Jersey land as permanent green space. She was also recognized by the Natural Resources Defense Council for instituting the most comprehensive beach monitoring system in the nation. As EPA Administrator, she promoted common-sense environmental improvements such as watershed-based water protection policies. She championed regulations requiring nonroad diesel engines to reduce sulfur emissions by more than 95 percent. She also established the first federal program to promote redevelopment and reuse of "brownfields”, that is, previously contaminated industrial sites.
Although she no longer holds public office, Governor Whitman continues to serve the citizens of the United States. She is a public member of the seven-member Board of Directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, The Millennium Challenge Corporation administers the provision of U.S. foreign aid to developing nations based on policies to encourage sustainable economic growth and responsible government.
Governor Whitman is also Co-Chairman of the National Smart Growth Council; serves on the Steering Committee of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey; the Board of Trustees of the Eisenhower Fellowships; the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Governing Board of the Park City Center for Public Policy; and is a member of the board of the New America Foundation. She was also the Co-Chair for the Council on Foreign Relations’ Task Force, More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach Toward Africa.
Governor Whitman also serves on the Board of Directors of S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc., Texas Instruments Incorporated, United Technologies Corporation and is a member of the Center for Civic Engagement and Volunteerism Advisory Board at Raritan Valley Community College.
Prior to becoming Governor, she was the President of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and served on the Somerset County board of Chosen Freeholders.
Governor Whitman holds a BA from Wheaton College in Norton, MA, and is married to John R. Whitman. They have two children and two grandchildren.
Jane Wilson
Jane M. Wilson is Director of Standards for NSF International, a standard development organization and provider of third-party conformity assessment services with headquarters in Ann Arbor, MI. She has been with NSF International since 1990. She holds a B.S. degree in Medical Technology and a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) degree in Toxicology, both from the University of Michigan. As Director of Standards, Ms. Wilson is responsible for all of NSF’s consensus standards development activities and maintenance of its accreditation by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). NSF currently maintains 45 American National Standards, with a focus on protection of public health and the environment.