Staff
Russell E. Keenan, Ph.D.
Vice President, Principal Toxicologist
Dr. Russell Keenan has 25 years of experience as a biologist and toxicologist and is regarded as an expert in the risk assessment of PCBs, dioxins, furans, chromium, and mercury and for the development of time-dependent probabilistic risk assessment methods. Dr. Keenan is noted for his work in evaluating the human health and ecological risks associated with contaminated aquatic environments, including the Hudson River PCB Superfund Site, the Housatonic River in Massachusetts and Connecticut, the Fox River in Wisconsin, the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington, the Penobscot River in Maine, tributaries of the Delaware, and rivers in the greater New York–New Jersey watershed. Dr. Keenan has conducted more than 100 human health and wildlife risk assessments for CERCLA and RCRA sites and has evaluated the risks associated with exposure to conventional and radioactive residuals from former mining operations, particularly in the western U.S. He has testified before U.S. Congressional panels and various state and federal agencies during regulatory proceedings on environmental issues. Among other accomplishments, this work has led to the establishment of EPA-approved alternative ambient water quality criteria in nine states.
Dr. Keenan managed the first private sector Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with EPA in the field of regulatory toxicology and risk assessment. The CRADA provided the framework for cooperative research to develop Monte Carlo-based models for characterizing the uncertainty in reference dose estimates used in noncancer risk assessment. Subsequent to this work, he was selected to serve as one of eight independent experts in the congressionally mandated review of EPA’s process for handling toxicological uncertainty in its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). Results of this peer review were submitted to the EPA Science Advisory Board and in a report to the U.S. Congress. He is an active member in the Society of Toxicology, receiving two best paper awards, and in the Society for Risk Analysis, the National Council for Air & Stream Improvement, and the Maine Pulp and Paper Association.
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