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John Vandenberg

Adjunct Professor in the Division of Environmental Natural Sciences
Environmental Natural Science
2260 Cranford Rd, Durham, NC 27705
2260 Cranford Rd, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


Dr. Vandenberg served as Director of the Health and Environmental Effects Assessment Park Division of the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, at the US Environmental Protection Agency (retired, 2021). He has over 35 years of experience in environmental health risk assessment and was responsible for leadership, planning and oversight of EPA’s Integrated Science Assessments for the major (criteria) air pollutants and Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessments for high priority hazardous air pollutants, and for development of new risk assessment methodologies. He has testified to committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate on the health and environmental effects of air pollutants and served as National Program Director of EPA’s Human Health Risk Assessment program and Particulate Matter Research program. Dr. Vandenberg has been a consultant to the World Health Organization, represented EPA in scientific meetings in Europe, South America, Asia and the Middle East, and has served on numerous university and State scientific advisory committees. He was elected Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis and he is recipient of EPA’s Statesmanship and Distinguished Service Awards. 

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Adjunct Professor in the Division of Environmental Natural Sciences · 2024 - Present Environmental Natural Science, Nicholas School of the Environment

Recent Publications


New Toxicology Tools and the Emerging Paradigm Shift in Environmental Health Decision-Making.

Journal Article Environmental health perspectives · December 2019 BackgroundNumerous types of rapid toxicity or exposure assays and platforms are providing information relevant to human hazard and exposure identification. They offer the promise of aiding decision-making in a variety of contexts including the reg ... Full text Cite

Incorporating epigenetics into a risk assessment framework

Chapter · January 1, 2018 The evidence that epigenomic modification by environmental factors can pose significant public health risks is substantial. Epigenomic modification can include a wide variety of health effects. Exposures during sensitive life stages (i.e., fetus, neonates ... Full text Cite

Application of epigenetic data in human health risk assessment.

Journal Article Current opinion in toxicology · November 2017 Despite the many recent advances in the field of epigenetics, application of this knowledge in environmental health risk assessment has been limited. In this paper, we identify opportunities for application of epigenetic data to support health risk assessm ... Full text Cite
View All Publications

Education


Duke University · 1987 Ph.D.
Duke University · 1982 M.S.
College of Wooster · 1978 B.A.