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Joel
D. Scheraga
Joel with
his dog, Lucky, at Great Falls National Park, VA
Dr. Joel D. Scheraga is the National Program
Director for the Global Change Research Program and the Mercury Research
Program in the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development. He
holds a federal Scientific and Professional level (ST) position. Dr. Scheraga
is responsible for managing a $20.0 million Global Change Research Program,
a $4 million Mercury Research Program, and over 40 personnel in five
laboratories and centers. He is also the EPA Principal Representative to
the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), which coordinates and
integrates scientific research on climate and global change supported by
the U.S. Government.
Dr. Scheraga has participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He was a
Lead Author of the 1997 IPCC North American Regional Assessment. In
1995, he was a Contributing Author to the Working Group II chapter on
“Technical Guidelines for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and
Adaptations” that appeared in the IPCC Second Assessment Report. He also
served as an Expert Reviewer of the Second Assessment Report. And he
served as an Assisting Lead Author for the 1994 IPCC Technical
Guidelines for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations. Dr.
Scheraga has been a member of several official U.S. Delegations to the
international meetings of the IPCC.
As a National Program Director at EPA, Dr. Scheraga directs
policy-relevant assessments of the potential impacts of global change
(particularly climate change and climate variability) on air quality,
water quality, aquatic ecosystems, and human health. These assessments are
intended to provide timely and useful information to decision makers and
resource managers, and include evaluation of adaptation options for
responding to change. The Global Program also develops decision support
tools to help resource managers cope with a changing climate. He directs a Mercury
Program that studies the
fate and transport of mercury in the environment, particularly in those
areas where people harvest and eat fish that bioaccumulate the mercury.
Dr.
Scheraga was Chair of the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s
National Assessment Workgroup from 2000-2002 and Vice Chair from
1998-2000. The Workgroup was responsible for managing the U.S. National
Assessment process which resulted in the report to Congress entitled,
“Climate Change Impacts on the United States: The Potential Consequences
of Climate Variability and Change.”
Dr. Scheraga is actively involved in international research and
assessment activities. He was a co-author of the 2005 Human Health Synthesis
Report that is part of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He
has served as a faculty member for the International Water Management
Course held by the Swiss Federal Institute of Environmental Science and
Technology in Switzerland. He was a co-editor and lead author of the book,
Climate Change and Human Health: Risks and Responses, released by the
World Health Organization in December 2003, and co-author of the 2003
WHO report, Methods of Assessing Human Vulnerability and Public
Health Adaptation to Climate Change. He co-authored a white paper in
2003 on the effects of climate change on water quality in the Great
Lakes Region for the US/Canada International Joint Commission’s Water
Quality Board.
Dr. Scheraga received an A.B. degree in geology-mathematics/physics from
Brown University in 1976, an M.A. in economics from Brown University in
1979, and a Ph.D. in economics from Brown University in 1981. Prior to
joining EPA, he was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Rutgers
University from 1981-1987, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of
Economics at Princeton University from 1985-1986. He has published
numerous articles on global climate change, environmental economics,
public policy, the integration of science and policy in
multidisciplinary programs, and applied microeconomics and microeconomic
theory.
Dr. Scheraga was named a Fellow of the Institute for Science, Technology
and Public Policy in The Bush School of Government and Public Service at
Texas A&M University in June 2008. He was also the recipient of the 2004 inaugural Horace Mann
Distinguished Graduate School Alumni Award presented by Brown University.
The award is given to Graduate School alumni who have made distinguished
contributions to society through their scholarship and related
professional activities. Dr. Scheraga was one of the 1,360 scientists
from 95 countries honored with the 2005 Zayed Award for scientific
and/or technological achievement in environment for their work on the
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He has also received six EPA Bronze Medals. |