THOMAS, Robert G., PhD
Chair

Scientific Member
(Radiation Biology)

1996-2004
3/01/2005 - 6/30/2008

Robert G. Thomas spent WWII in the US Navy as an Electronics Technician. He received an undergraduate degree in Physics from The St. Lawrence University in 1949 and a PhD degree from the University of Rochester in Radiation Biology and Biophysics in 1955. He has over 50 Senior Authored, open literature publications and many more as joint author. The subject matter of these has spanned a range of topics from the development of nuclear detection techniques to the biological effects of radioactive materials in experimental animals, including the human. He received honors from the Secretaries of State and Energy for his direction of field work in post-Chernobyl Eastern European countries. His service on National and International Committees is a matter of record in many fields dealing with the Nuclear Age. Thomas has served on many Civic Boards of Directors and Committees including a range from Sheltered Workshops for handicapped individuals to being Chief Umpire for Little League Baseball. In managerial circles he has been called a "Tough Monkey".

BISTLINE, Robert, PhD

Scientific Member
(Occupational Health)

3/14/2007 - 9/30/2010

Robert W. Bistline received his Ph.D. from Colorado State University in Radiation Biology in 1973, his M.S. in Radiological Sciences from the University of Washington in 1970, Graduate studies in Radiation Biophysics and Atomic Physics at the University of Kansas, and his B.A. in Physics, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences from Westmar College in 1959. He taught and coached in high schools in Kansas and taught and served as Admissions Director at Westmar College prior to entering the fields of research and Health Physics at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant in 1966. Dr. Bistline did research and development of lung counting of transuranics elements, conducted radiation worker cytogenetic studies, conducted radiation health effects studies and epidemiologic studies of radiation workers, served as one of 3 prosectors assisting in approximately 120 autopsies of workers for the U.S. Transuranium Registry, established a former worker recall call medical surveillance program that is now used by the Department of Energy, and was one of the pioneers in the DOE Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program. He has more than 50 scientific publications and has given several hundred presentations. Dr. Bistline was appointed to an Excepted Service position by the Secretary of Energy in 1994 and joined the staff of the Rocky Flats Field Office of the Department of Energy in 1995 where he served until retirement in 2005 as a Program Manager of the Internal Dosimetry Program, Occupational Medicine Program, Radiation Protection Program, and the Beryllium Worker Protection Program at Rocky Flats. He supported the DOE Headquarters on numerous technical committees, workshops, and the development of program guidance. Dr. Bistline has served on the Department of Energy Central Beryllium Institutional Review Board since its beginning. Upon retirement he has been consulting for the National Institute of Health, the Department of Energy, and as a technical advisor for the President's Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health that provides oversite of the NIOSH OCAS dose reconstruction project for the government's Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. He has received numerous awards that include the Department of Energy's Pride Award.

GIBB, Herman, PhD

Scientific Member
(Epidemiology)

3/1/2007 - 9/30/2010

Herman J. Gibb received his Ph.D from The Johns Hopkins University in Epidemiology in 1989, his M.P.H from the University of Pittsburgh in Environmental Health in 1974, and he B.S. from Pennsylvania State Universty in Chemistry and Biology in 1970. Dr. Gibb is a Senior Epidemiologist with Sciences International, Inc. Since joining Sciences in January 2004, Dr. Gibb has conducted an assessment of the health effects of metals on Marinduque Island in the Philippines, provided key expert testimony on his epidemiologic study of chromate production workers at OSHA hearings in February 2005, and provided expert assistance to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the creation of a Framework for the Health Assessment of Metals. Prior to joining Sciences, Dr. Gibb served as the Senior Science Advisor at the National Center for Environmental Assessment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Gibb has over 25 years of experience in health and environmental sciences and also held positions as the Associate Director for Health and Assistant Center Director at the National Center for Environmental Assessment. As the Associate Director for Health, Dr. Gibb was responsible for EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), an on-line system of EPA’s risk assessments. Dr. Gibb was the Project Officer for EPA’s cooperative agreements with the World Health Organization. He was the lead author for the Office of Research and Development’s multiyear research plan for mercury. Dr. Gibb is a recognized international expert on the health effects of metals and in particular arsenic, chromium, nickel, and copper. Dr. Gibb was the recipient of the EPA’s Scientific and Technological Achievement Award for his study of lung cancer mortality and clinical irritation among chromate production workers. He was also the recipient of the EPA’s Gold Medal for Exceptional Service for his work on the drinking water standard for arsenic.

HAYES, William, MS

Scientific Member
(Radiochemistry)

10/24/2006 - 9/30/2009

Mr. Hayes received his B.A. degree in chemistry from David Lipscomb College in 1975 and completed graduate studies at Texas A&M University in organic chemistry in 1977. For the next 15 years, he served as a research scientist at the DOE Fernald Site. At Fernald, he was responsible for the internal and external dosimetry programs; bioassay and environmental radiochemistry procedure development; and contract oversight for outside laboratory services. Following his work at Fernald, he established and managed radiochemistry laboratories at DataChem Laboratories in Salt Lake City, Utah, O’Brien & Gere Laboratories in Syracuse, New York, and GEL Laboratories in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Hayes currently manages in the Dosimetry & Radiological Measurements Group at the DOE Pantex Site for BWXT. His group is responsible for site bioassay analyses and internal and external dosimetry measurements.Mr. Hayes has presented over 10 papers dealing with environmental radiochemistry and external dosimetry topics. He was awarded the George Westinghouse Award when at Fernald for implementing significant improvements in their laboratory contracting and auditing processes. He was also awarded the Founder’s Award from his peers for contributions to the Conference on Bioassay, Analytical, and Environmental Radiochemistry, now referred to as the Radiobioassay & Radiochemistry Measurements Conference.

MAHLUM, Dennis, PhD

Scientific Member
(Health Physics)

1/23/2001 - 6/30/2007

Dr. Dennis Mahlum received his B.S. in Chemistry from Whitworth College, Spokane Washington in 1955, his M.S. in Agricultural Chemistry from University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho in 1958, and his Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin in 1962. Dr. Mahlum was employed at Pacific Northwest Laboratory (formerly operated by General Electric) from 1961-1994, with the exception of two leaves of absence from Battelle: First, he took a temporary assignment from 1975 through 1976 as Radiation Biologist, Division of Biomedical and Environmental Research, Energy Research and Development Administration, Germantown, MD. He also served on a 2-year assignment from 1991 through 1992 at the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council Board on Radiation Effects Research, Washington, DC, where he was coordinator and study director for projects concerning ionizing and nonionizing radiation. Dr. Mahlum was Chairman of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements Scientific Committee 67 on Biological Effects of Magnetic Fields. He also served on the editorial board of the journal Toxicology and was a member of the American Institute of Nutrition, the Radiation Research Society, the Society of Toxicology, the Bioelectromagnetics Society and Sigma Xi. Since his retirement from Battelle in April 1994, he has been consulting with MACTEC at Richland, WA concerning export control information (ECI) and unclassified nuclear information (UCNI) contained in documents requested by litigants in a lawsuit between so-called "downwinders" and the U.S. Department of Energy's contractors at the Hanford site.

MEIER, Kathryn, PhD  
Department of Pharmacuetical Science, College of Pharmacy
Washington State University

Ethics Representative
&
Academic Community Member
(Pharmacology)

3/1/2005 - 6/30/2007

Kathryn Elaine Meier received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Wisconsin in 1981. Currently, she is a professor for the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy at Washington State University where she is a member of the Center for Reproductive Biology and the Cancer Prevention and Research Center as well. Kathryn presently serves on two editorial boards; American Journal of Physiology (Cell Physiology) and Molecular Pharmacology, and serves on two National Committees; Executive Committee, ASPET Division of Molecular Summer Research, and Conference Committee, FASEB (APS representative). Dr. Meier provides manuscript reviews for approximately 20 different scientific journals, has served on seventeen different review boards, and has authored more than 100 manuscripts and abstracts. She has received many distinguished awards and honors during her career including the MUSC Teaching Excellence Award, Educator-Mentor category in 2001.