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U.S. EPA Names Harold Zenick Director of National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory

Release Date: 01/08/2007
Contact Information: Melissa Anley-Mills 202-564-5179 / anley-mills.melissa@epa.gov

(Washington, D.C. – Jan. 8, 2007) Dr. George Gray, assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development (ORD), has named Dr. Harold “Hal” Zenick as director of EPA’s National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), which is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Dr. Gray said,“Hal Zenick is a key and long-standing contributor to NHEERL’s excellence. I'm pleased that Hal agreed to continue his leadership of the laboratory's efforts to provide our nation’s policy-makers with sound science to inform decisions.”

The U.S. EPA’s National Health and Environmental Effects Research Lab is the largest of ORD's laboratories and centers and produces specialized scientific research to help protect human health and safeguard the natural environment. NHEERL accomplishes this mission by linking the best available science and data to the Agency’s goals of making sound policy decisions and setting appropriate regulatory requirements. Dr. Zenick has had a notable career in the science arm of EPA; he has been with ORD for 22 years, recently as the acting director and previously the deputy director of NHEERL. He has also served as the acting ORD deputy assistant administrator for science in Washington, D.C., and was a branch chief in EPA's Office of Health and Environmental Assessment. Prior to joining ORD, Dr. Zenick spent 13 years in academia with the Department of Environmental Health in the University of Cincinnati Medical School preceded by an appointment at New Mexico Highlands University. Dr. Zenick has a Ph.D. in physiological psychology from the University of Missouri (Columbia).

Over his federal career, Dr. Zenick earned numerous awards and participated in many cross-EPA and cross-federal agency efforts. Perhaps most notable among his awards are the prestigious Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award and the ORD Statesmanship Award. In addition, Dr. Zenick serves as EPA's liaison to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; the National Toxicology Program; the National Center for Environmental Health-Centers for Disease Control ; and is co-chair of the Border 2012 environmental health work group, a bi-national, results-oriented environmental program for the U.S.-Mexico border region. Additionally, he sits on the Health Effects Science Institute’s Executive Steering Committee for Emerging Issues, co-chairs an Interagency Workgroup on Pharmaceuticals in the Environment and is president of the Occupational and Public Health Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology.

His many research interests include the impact of the environment on the rapidly growing, aging population; the application of new scientific advances in assessing human health risks; the role of the environment as related to health disparities; and integrating human health and ecological risk assessment.

EPA’s laboratories, research centers, and grantees are building the scientific foundation needed to support the Agency’s mission to safeguard human health and the environment.

For more information on the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory please visit: www.epa.gov/nheerl.