Team

Bob Sonawane, Ph.D. (Principal/Partner)

Dr. Sonawane received his Ph.D. degree (1971) in Entomology with specialization in Toxicology from the University of Missouri.. He was a NIH postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina (1972-1975). He served as a faculty member in the Departments of Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the School of Medicine, and at the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (1975- 1983). He has been a recipient of several NIH research grants in the area of pediatric pharmacology .and was involved in teaching drug metabolism to medical and pharmacy students. Dr. Sonawane worked as a Toxicologist with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Rockville, MD (1983- 1985) He served as a Biologist (1985-1990), Branch Chief of Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology (1991- 1995) and Group Chief of the Effects Identification and Characterization (1995-2015) of the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), Office of Research and Development of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. He also served on temporary details as the Group Chief to Quantitative Risk Methods Group (2015), Acting Deputy Director (1989), and Acting Director (1990) of NCEA Cincinnati and Washington Divisions. Dr. Sonawane has over 35 plus years research and management experience in toxicology and pharmacology and cancer/non-cancer health risk assessment of environmental pollutants. He is an author and/or co-author of over 100 publications and several book chapters in toxicology and pharmacology, children's environmental health and risk assessment of environmental chemicals. Dr. Sonawane was involved in providing leadership in coordinating and managing several health risk assessment of the IRIS band other chemicals. Some recent examples include Libby Amphibole Asbestos, Formaldehyde, Ethylene Oxide, Trichloroethylene, Tetrachloroethylene, Benzene, n-Butanol, Phthalate Esters, Tetrahydrofuran, Nitrobenzene, Vanadium Pentoxide, MTBE, Phosgene, Methyl Mercury, Lead, Chromium, Cadmium, Antimony, Silica etc;.

Dr Sonawane received numerous prestigious awards and honors, citations, certificates, Science and Technology Achievement and Special Act Awards for his exemplary research in toxicology and risk assessment of environmental agents. These include but not limited to Gold, Silver, Bronze Medals including "Joseph Seifter Memorial Award" for higher commitment to the scientific excellence and understanding of the public health impact of regulatory science. In 2016, Dr. Sonawane received the most "Distinguished Career Service Award" and the "Distinguished Service Citation" by the Administrator of USEPA. In 2016, he also received EPA's Bronze Medal for the Commendable Service-Human Health Risk Assessment National Program Team .

Dr. Sonawane conducted, directed and managed research in developing methods, models and tools, databases, risk assessment guidelines to better characterize uncertainties in health risk assessment of environmental pollutants. He has provided leadership and represented US EPA in over 20 plus countries, served as a liaison and contributed to several inter-and intra-agency committees, workgroups, strategic research planning groups and task forces related to toxicology and risk assessment issues, children's environmental health, development of reproductive(1987) and developmental toxicity (1991) risk assessment guidelines ,health risk assessment training courses, databases on physiological parameters for PBPK modeling across life stages of experimental animals and humans, ontogeny of xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes, approaches for incorporating pharmacokinetics in children's health risk assessment, dose-metric adjustments and scaling factors across life stages, aging and toxic response, biomarkers of exposure and effects in children, genetic polymorphisms and metabolism of xenobiotics, excretion of chemicals in breast milk, etc. Dr. Sonawane initiated, planned, organized, sponsored and/or participated in numerous scientific workshops, meetings and conferences actively promoting environmental health and risk assessment issues and challenges of environmental agents in several countries around the world.

Bruce Fowler, Ph.D. ATS (Principal/Partner)

B.S. degree in Fisheries (Marine Biology) from the University of Washington in 1968 and a Ph.D. in Pathology from the University of Oregon Medical School in 1972. He began his scientific career at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences prior to becoming Director of the University of Maryland System-wide Program in Toxicology and Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He then served as Associate Director for Science in the Division of Toxicology and Environmental Medicine at CDC / ATSDR. He is currently a private consultant (TRACS, LLC) and Adjunct Professor, Emory School of Public Health and previously a Presidents Professor of Biomedical Science at the University of Alaska- Fairbanks. Dr. Fowler is an internationally recognized expert on the toxicology of metals and has served on a number of State, National and International Committees in his areas of expertise. These include the NAS/NRC Committee on Measuring Lead in Children and Other Sensitive Populations (Chair), WHO Panels, IARC Working Groups. Most recently, he served as a member of the FAO/WHO JECFA committee and US Pharmacopea Committee on Nanomaterials. Dr. Fowler has been honored as a Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, a Fulbright Scholar and Swedish Medical Research Council Visiting Professor at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden and elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (ATS). He has served on the Council of the SOT and the Board of Directors of the ATS. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Fulbright Association and Chair of the Advocacy Committee, He is past Chair of Federal Legislative Committee for the Maryland National Association of Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) and a Paul Harris Multiple Fellow of Rotary International. Dr. Fowler is also a Trustee of the Maryland Democratic Party. He has established 8 Endowed Funds for a variety of causes with a focus on supporting students in environmental health and Fulbright scholars with disabilities. He has language expertise in German, Swedish, Spanish, French and spoken Japanese and Mandarin to varying degrees. He is a PADI - certified Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDT). Dr. Fowler is the author of over 260 research papers and book chapters and authored or edited / co-edited 10 books or monographs on toxicology, molecular biomarkers, computational toxicology, mechanisms of chemical – induced cell injury/ cell death and most recently risk assessment for electronic waste. He has provided invited testimony before committees of the US Congress and the State of Maryland on matters related to toxic chemicals. He is currently engaged in converting his library of underwater photogaphs into acryllic impressionistic paintings in support of reef preservation / restoration projects.