Jason R. Richardson, MS, PhD, DABT, is the recipient of the 2017 Society of Toxicology (SOT) Achievement Award. This recognition is presented to a member of SOT who, within 15 years since obtaining his/her highest earned degree, has made significant contributions to toxicology.
Research conducted by Dr. Richardson focuses on the role of environmental exposures and their interactions with genetic susceptibility as contributors to neurological disease using translational approaches. He has recruited and led multidisciplinary teams of researchers to explore gene-environment interactions relevant to Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD. Through the conduct of basic and epidemiological studies, he has contributed several significant findings that have broad implications for human health, individual susceptibility, and risk assessment as it relates to neurodegenerative disease and neurodevelopmental disorders. These efforts have been continuously funded by the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) through multiple R01 grants.
He has published more than 80 manuscripts and book chapters in the areas of developmental neurotoxicology, neurodegenerative disease, and pesticides and has given more than 60 invited lectures both nationally and internationally. Dr. Richardson is currently a member of several editorial boards and is an associate editor of Neurotoxicology. He has served as a reviewer for more than 50 national and international grant review panels and most recently was named chair of the Environmental Health Sciences Review Committee at NIEHS. He also has served as a member of the Committee on Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions at the US National Academy of Sciences.
He is a graduate of Mississippi State University and received his PhD in environmental toxicology in 2002. He received his postdoctoral training in molecular neuroscience and neurotoxicology at Emory University and spent 10 years at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, where he served as deputy director and then director of the Joint Graduate Program in Toxicology. In 2015, Dr. Richardson was recruited to Northeast Ohio Medical University, where he serves as a professor of pharmaceutical sciences, acting associate dean for research for the College of Pharmacy, and the founding director of neurodegenerative disease and aging research focus area.
An SOT member since 2000, he served as secretary/treasurer for the Neurotoxicology Specialty Section. In addition, he received the Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award from NIEHS and in 2015 was the inaugural recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the Toxicology Division of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
For information about other awards presented during the 56th SOT Annual Meeting, please visit the SOT website.