New Chair Named for Clean Air Committee

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, appointed Dr. Jonathan Samet, an expert on human health effects of air pollutants, as chair of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC, www.epa.gov/casac).

Dr. Samet is currently professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health (www.jhsph.edu), Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. On Nov. 1, he will transfer to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he will become professor and chair for the Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine (www.usc.edu/keck), as well as director of the USC Institute for Global Health.

The CASAC is an independently chartered federal advisory committee composed of independent, external scientists that advises the EPA Administrator on the technical bases for EPA”s standards for criteria air pollutants. Every year, EPA solicits nominations for members to serve on the CASAC. The new chair will serve a two-year term.