Green Chemistry Leader to Head EPA Research
Via e-mail from the National Council for Science and the Environment.
Paul Anastas, the Director of Yale University’s Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering and Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment, has been selected by President Obama as EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Research and Development. He will lead EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD), which is the scientific research arm of EPA.
Trained as a synthetic organic chemist, Dr. Anastas is credited with establishing the field of “green chemistry” — a term he coined inn 1991 — during his time working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where he was the chief of the Industrial Chemistry Branch in EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances and director of the U.S. Green Chemistry Program. From 1999 to 2004, during the Clinton administration, he was the assistant director for the environment in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He then served as the founding director of the Green Chemistry Institute, headquartered at the American Chemical Society. While there, he established 24 green chemistry chapters in countries around the world, including China, Ethiopia, India, Japan and South Africa.
Green chemistry is the study of how to design chemical products and processes in ways that are sustainable and not harmful for humans and the environment. Dr. Anastas spoke about green chemistry at NCSE’s 2007 national conference: Integrating Environment and Human Health.
Dr. Anastas told NCSE that if confirmed, he would “always fight for scientists”. NCSE congratulates Dr. Anastas on his nomination and looks forward to working with him when he is confirmed as Assistant Administrator.
EPA’s Office of Research & Development (ORD) is organized into three national laboratories, four national centers, and two offices located in 14 facilities around the country and in Washington, D.C. These labs, centers, and offices provide information and technical support to EPA program offices, regions, state/municipal/tribal governments, and other agencies performing environmental research, assessment, and risk management. ORD scientists also collaborate with private-sector partners to address important environmental issues. The National Center for Environmental Research supports EPA’s Science To Achieve Results (STAR) research and fellowship program.