Surprise Retirement Zoom Gathering for Prof. Eastmond's Retirement

Monday June 29 marked my (Dave Eastmond's) last day as a full-time faculty member at UC Riverside.  Without my knowledge, my former graduate students and alumni from the Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program organized a Zoom meeting at 5 pm in recognition of my years at UCR.  It was a really nice occasion, and fun to see and hear from the many students and post docs who have moved forward and advanced in their careers. They also sent me a nice floral arrangement.  Some screenshots from the event are shown below.  A special thanks to Sharada, Virunya, and Naomi for organizing the reunion, and also to Elizabeth, my wife, who coordinated things at home to keep me in the dark.  

2020 Annual Symposium Held by Videoconference

On Monday June 15, 2020, the Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program held its annual student symposium by Zoom videoconference.  It was an outstanding event being well organized and showing a lot of creativity during these challenging times.  In addition to being a video conference, the format differed this year in a number of other ways.  The more senior students presented their research during the Spring quarter during the seminar series.  The symposium consisted of a smaller number of oral presentations as well as an online poster session (which I might mention was outstanding with online posters, a prerecorded explanation of the poster by the student and a Zoom link during the poster session where one could speak to the student and ask questions).  In addition, there was a raffle, a yoga session just before lunch and a presentation of awards and recognition of recent graduates.  The symposium was well attended; I counted 60 people connected during the final award session.  Winners of the various awards are shown below.

We would like to especially recognize Victoria (Tori) McGruer who, with Prof. Ying-Hsuan Wang and Prof. Wenwan Zhong (shown in red below), took the lead in organizing the symposium.



Various screen shots illustrating aspects of the event.

 

Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award to Dr. Nicole zur Nieden

Last Lecture in my Risk Assessment class

Today was a historic day for me (David Eastmond). I finished teaching the last of my 10-week class on risk assessment by Zoom. The class was pretty successful but I (and I think the students) prefer in-person instruction.  I had an excellent group of 18 students this quarter. It is also the last class that I will be teaching as a full-time faculty member as, after 30 years, I will be retiring from UC Riverside at the end of the month. I may teach in the future but it will be on a part-time basis. I still have to correct papers and assign grades so I am not done yet.

Prue Talbot Awarded Grant to Study Coronavirus-related Infection

Prof. Prue Talbot, a Environmental Toxicology faculty member, has recently been awarded a seed grant to study the effect of electronic cigarettes on the Angiotensin converting enzyme-2 receptor on the respiratory epithelium, leading to more binding sites for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, and increasing the possibility of infection.  More information can be found at the InsideUCR webpage.  Our congratulations to Prue and her research group.  We wish them success.

Roxana Coreas Selected for UC President's Pre-professoriate Fellowship

Roxana Coreas, an ETOX PhD student working with Prof. Wenwan Zhong, was selected for a new Pre-Professoriate Fellowship created by the President of the University of California.  The fellowship is part of a newly established UC-Hispanic Serving Institutions Doctoral Diversity Initiative which aims to enhance faculty diversity and pathways to the professoriate for underrepresented students from California Hispanic Serving Institutions.  Our congratulations to Roxana for this nice recognition.

Toxicologist position at FDA in College Park, MD

A staff fellow position for a regulatory review scientist is currently available in the FDA Office of Food Additive Safety (OFAS), Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). The position requires a Ph.D. in toxicology, pharmacology, biology, or similar field with relevance to public health. In addition to the forestated qualifications, the applicant must have experience in reproductive/teratologic toxicology and metabolism. 

OFAS’s mandate is to ensure that food ingredients and additives are safe for their intended use. More information on OFAS can be found at the FDA website: https://www.fda.gov/food/food-ingredients-packaging

Some of the duties include:

• Review and technical evaluation of regulatory and scientific issues regarding food ingredients, direct additives and indirect additives.
  
• Review reproductive/developmental toxicology study data (including teratology data) and metabolism data related to safety evaluation of food ingredients, direct additives, and indirect additives
  
• Evaluates toxicological data and information submitted to the Agency by notifiers, petitioners, or from other sources, which pertain to the safety of food ingredients and additives.
  

Additional information on the staff fellow program is available at https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/scientific-internships-fellowships-trainees-and-non-us-citizens/fdas-staff-fellowship-program. Please submit CVs for consideration or additional questions regarding the open position to Jason Aungst at Jason.Aungst@fda.hhs.gov.

EPA Looking to Fill Multiple Positions in North Carolina

The EPA is hosting a series of hiring webinars to give the public an overview of the U.S. EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) and tell them about the 30+ positions that it is currently recruiting to fill in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The next webinar is scheduled for Thursday, April 23, 2:00 pm (EST) and the 3rd is scheduled for Thursday, April 30 at 2 pm (EST). Here is the link to the webinars. More information from the EPA is below.

OCSPP Job Opportunities:

We are currently recruiting a team of interdisciplinary scientists to work on TSCA risk assessment requirements and pesticide risk assessments. We are seeking scientists with backgrounds in toxicology, biology, chemistry, physical science, engineering, and epidemiology to support the expansion of the office beyond the Washington, DC metropolitan area. At the entry level of these positions, you will review, research, and analyze data related to understanding the hazards, exposure, fate and transport, and the potential for exposure and risk during manufacture, processing, and use of chemicals, pesticides, nanomaterials and biological agents, and support risk management efforts. Starting salary for a GS-9 employee is $54,976.00 per year at Step 1. Starting salary for a GS-11 employee is $66,515.00 per year at Step 1. To learn more about EPA’s chemical safety office, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-office-chemical-safety-and-pollution-prevention-ocspp. For information on federal benefits, visit: https://www.epa.gov/careers/salaries-and-benefits.