CEB Director Gary Sayler to Head EPA Advisory Committee
The leader of a University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge National
Laboratory joint institute has been named chairman of an
influential advisory committee of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
The EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) has named Gary
S. Sayler chairman of the executive committee of the Board of
Scientific Counselors (BOSC). Sayler is the director of the UT-ORNL
Joint Institute for Biological Sciences and a distinguished
professor of microbiology at UT Knoxville.
The board advises ORD which is the EPA's scientific research arm,
on air and water quality issues, global climate change and other
concerns related to human health and environmental protection.
"Our group provides an unvarnished process of review and oversight
for the agency, helping to ensure that they are meeting the
mandates set out for them and their own strategic goals," said
Sayler, who also directs UT's Center for Environmental
Biotechnology.
BOSC is comprised of a number of subcommittees, which review eight
to 10 of ORD's programs each year. Sayler will oversee the process
of approving the reviews and communicating them to the agency.
Sayler noted that the work of ORD influences many aspects of EPA's
larger work, providing critical research background to various
agency offices.
Sayler, who has served on the BOSC executive committee since May
2004, will chair his first committee meeting on Jan. 24 in
Washington, D.C. The 15-member BOSC committee includes scientists
and engineers drawn from academia, industry and environmental
communities.
For more information, contact
Gary Sayler or
Jay Mayfield.