Keynote Speakers Announced for SETAC North America 28th Annual Meeting

Newswise — The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) is delighted to confirm four keynote speakers for the 28th Annual SETAC North America Meeting being held in Milwaukee, Wis., from November 11-15, 2007. The presenters are David Sedlak, Deborah Swackhamer, Thomas Homer-Dixon and Nora Savage.

David Sedlak is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He has published more than 40 papers on water contaminants, the fate of contaminants in wastewater treatment and more recently the fate of pharmaceuticals through the wastewater process. Sedlak also serves on the editorial board of Environmental Science and Technology and Environmental Technology and is a member of the Drinking Water Committee of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board.

Deborah Swackhamer is Interim Director of the University of Minnesota’s new Institute on the Environment and a Professor of Environmental Chemistry in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health. She was recently named a Fellow in the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK and received the Harvey G. Rogers Award from the Minnesota Public Health Association in June, 2007. Her current research focuses on investigating the bioaccumulation, exposure and impacts of environmental estrogenic chemicals.

Thomas Homer-Dixon is Director of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto and Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. His current research increasingly focuses on energy issues, specifically as they relate to the global economy and national and international security. Homer-Dixon’s planned topic is "The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization" and is designed to give a wake-up call that is pertinent to any organization.

Nora Savage is an environmental engineer with the EPA in Washington, DC inside the Office of Research and Development. Her focus areas include nanotechnology, pollution prevention and life cycle approaches for emerging technologies. She is one of the Agency representatives on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology subcommittee of the National Science and the Technology Council that implements the activities and strategies of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Currently, she serves as the lead for the EPA's internal effort to develop a nanotechnology research strategy to protect human health and the environment in a proactive way.

Each year the keynote speakers garner much attention from people attending the meeting. The theme of this year’s meeting is “Urban Environmental Issues: Impacts on Ecological Systems,” and each speaker will try to incorporate that idea into their presentation. The speakers are leading figures in their respective fields and widely revered in the environmental science community.

SETAC is a not-for-profit worldwide professional society of individuals and institutions dedicated to the study, analysis, and solution of environmental problems, the management and regulation of natural resources, environmental education, and research and development.