I have more than 47 years of experience as a health researcher, toxicology manager, and consultant in toxicology. I was section head (1 1/2 years), then branch chief (9 years) in charge of toxicology in the Health Effects Division, Office of Pesticides Programs at the Environmental Protection Agency from April 1986 until my retirement in August 1995. As section head and branch chief of toxicology in the Pesticides Program, I was in charge of the safety of pesticides and inert ingredients and responsible for reviewing the available animal and human toxicity data on pesticides. I served on numerous committees, including the Cancer Assessment Committee, a committee that determined potential carcinogenic risk of pesticides to humans based on carcinogenicity studies conducted in animals and epidemiology studies, if available, and the HIARC committee, which looked at all the available toxicity data on pesticides and determined the safe doses for human exposure. Prior to my work at EPA, from 1978 to 1986, I was a toxicology reviewer (1 1/2 years) and then section head for 7 years at the Food and Drug Administration in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in the Division of Toxicology. As a toxicology reviewer, I reviewed toxicology data on drugs that were given to animals that were targeted for consumption by humans. I then received a promotion and supervised the review of toxicology data that supported new food additives.

Prior to my government service, I taught pharmacology and toxicology to medical and nursing school students at several medical schools, including Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York, where I also held a research appointment in the Veterans Hospital and was an assistant professor at Upstate Medical Center. After working as a post-doctoral fellow at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, I became an assistant professor at the University of Illinois School of Medicine at Peoria.

After retiring from government service I have pursued a consulting career, focusing on all aspects of toxicology. I am currently a senior toxicologist with my Maryland-based company, van Gemert & Hauswirth, LLC.