Dr. Michael Dourson is the Director of Science at the environmental science NGO, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA), located in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has a Ph.D. in Toxicology from the University of Cincinnati, and a B.A. in Biology from Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio. He is board-certified in toxicology and an elected Fellow in both the Academy of Toxicological Sciences and the Society for Risk Analysis. Dr. Dourson has expertise in toxicology and human health risk assessment. He has co-published more than 150 papers on risk assessment methods or chemical specific analyses (4 of them winning awards), and co-authored well over 100 government risk assessment documents (many of them risk assessment guidance texts for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). He has made over 150 invited presentations to a variety of organizations, and has chaired numerous sessions at scientific meetings. Sources of TERA funding for the last two years include the American Chemistry Council, Alliance for Risk Assessment, Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, Becton Dickinson, Cobalt Institute, Consumer Products Safety Commission, Dose Response Boot Camps, National Science Centre of Poland, and the Swedish Research Council. Percentages of effort expended between government and industry sponsors can be seen at https://tera.org/about/FundingSources.html, but roughly approximates 2/3s government and 1/3 industry
Since 1986, and to the present, Dr. Dourson has chaired well over 100 scientific peer review meetings for risk assessment documents. Documents have covered a number of topics including risk assessment methods and assessments including cancer and non-cancer toxicity. These meetings have been sponsored by a number of organizations through either Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment’s (TERA) program of the International Toxicity Estimates for Risk (ITER) database (for examples, please see www.tera.org/peer), by EPA through its IRIS database (see www.epa.gov/iris), by the NSF International, or by groups such as Versar. These reviews have discussed well over 400 chemicals or risk issues. He has also been elected to multiple officer positions in the American Board of Toxicology (including its President), the Society of Toxicology (including the presidency of 3 specialty sections), the Society for Risk Analysis (including its Secretary), and is currently the President of the Toxicology Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a vision to help our public understand the essentials of toxicology. In addition to numerous appointments on government panels, such as EPA’s Science Advisory Board, he is a current member on the editorial board of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology.