Russell Thomas of The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences has been named Director of the Office of the National Center for Computational Toxicology of the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). Dr. Thomas will assume this new position in September.
He brings to this position a wealth of leadership and research experience in toxicology, risk assessment, and molecular biology. Most recently, he served as the Director of the Institute of Chemical Safety Sciences at The Hamner Institutes, where he also held a number of other leadership positions including Director of the Center for Genomic Biology and Bioinformatics and Director of the Gene Expression Core. Since 2009, he has also held an appointment as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Division of Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy.
Dr. Thomas has an extensive publishing record, including numerous scientific articles and book chapters and he has received multiple professional awards for his work in toxicology and risk assessment. He earned his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, and a Masters of Science in Radioecology and Health Physics and a PhD in Toxicology at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. He completed postdoctoral training in genomics and molecular biology at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research in Madison, Wisconsin.
He has served on a number of professional boards and committees, including as the President of the Molecular Biology Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology, as a member of the Emerging Issues Committee for the Health and Environmental Services Institute, and as a member of the Expert Advisory Panel for Safety Evaluation Ultimately Replacing Animal Testing, a Joint Program by the European Commission and European Cosmetics Association. He also served as a member of US EPA’s Board of Scientific Councilors.