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Fall 2009 ESR Seminars

Friday, 12:00-12:50 pm

Cramer Hall, Room 53

Date: November 6

Speaker: Bruce Hope (OR Dept of Environmental Quality)

Title “Environmental Risk Assessment in a Decision Context”

Abstract: This presentation will touch briefly on decision making under uncertainty and illustrate two methods for quantifying uncertainty. Risky decisions are those where at least one of the alternative choices open to the decision maker involves a threat to life or health. Such decisions, like all significant decisions, are clouded, to varying degrees, by uncertainty as to whether such a threat would be realized if that choice were made. Scientists and decision makers (particularly those in a political, constituency-influenced situations) typically respond differently to uncertainty. Good science acknowledges it, while in a decision/political context, doing so can have negative connotations. This dichotomy can profoundly influence the decision making process and, ultimately, which decisions are actually made. For risk posed by chemical or biological agents, probability is often used as a measure of uncertainty and there various methods available for quantitative uncertainty analysis (QUA).

Bio: Dr. Hope is a senior environmental toxicologist in the Air Quality Division at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). His present assignment is with the Water Quality Division on the Senate Bill 737 project, which involves the identification of persistent pollutants with respect to Oregon’s waters, and development of “trigger” levels that would initiate toxics reduction plans for these persistent pollutants. Prior to joining DEQ in 1995, he was a consultant in the private sector managing human health and ecological risk assessment projects for commercial and government clients throughout the U.S. and Pacific Rim. In 2000-01, he was on leave from DEQ as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) risk policy fellow in Washington DC, where he worked on food safety, microbial risk assessment, and bioterrorism issues. He has served on several U.S. Environmental Protection Agency national advisory and review panels addressing cumulative risk, wildlife, ecological and probabilistic risk assessment issues, and environmental modeling. In 2007-08, he was a member of a National Research Council committee evaluating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s human health risk assessment practices. Dr. Hope has been an adjunct faculty member at Oregon Health & Science University (Oregon Graduate Institute & School of Nursing), Concordia University (Portland), Portland State University, and Oregon State University. He holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biology (aquatic toxicology) from the University of Southern California and a B.A. degree from the University of California (Santa Barbara).

Upcoming ESM Events

Nov 5 - Environmental Science Career Panel. CANCELLED!  This event will be rescheduled for later in the quarter.

Nov 13 - ESM Colloquium. 3:00 - 6:00 pm. Smith Student Union Multicultural Center.

Summer 2009 ESM Newsletter

(note that this is a 52 mb file!)