Seasons Greetings from Riverside

I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Below are a few pictures from this year's Festival of Lights at the Mission Inn.

A few Christmas trees in Southern California style

 

Yinsheng Wang Elected as AAAS Fellow

Our congratulations to Prof. Yinsheng Wang, Director of the Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program at UC Riverside, who has recently been named as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  Dr. Wang was selected due to his “For distinguished contributions to the field of bioanalytical chemistry, particularly in the development of novel analytical methods enabling understanding of the biological consequences of DNA damage.” Our congratulations to Yinsheng for this nice recognition and well deserved honor.  For more information, please see the article in the UCR Newsroom.

Eastmond Elected as a Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini

Below are excerpts from the announcement from the UCR Newsroom.

Professor David Eastmond at the University of California, Riverside has been elected a fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, an organization of international scholars who work towards solutions of occupational and environmental health problems around the world.

Founded as an independent, international academy in 1982 and headquartered in Carpi, Italy, the Collegium Ramazzini is comprised of a select group of no more than 180 fellows from about 40 different countries, each fellow being distinguished by his or her contributions to occupation and environmental health. .....

Eastmond is the second faculty member at UC Riverside to be honored by the Collegium Ramazzini. In 2004, Carl Cranor, a professor of philosophy (and member of the Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program faculty), was named a fellow of the prestigious academy.

For more information, please see the UCR Newsroom release or in the College Notebook column in the Press Enterprise.

ETOX Mini-GSA at Ropes Course

The ETOX mini-graduate student association recently met to do the ropes course on campus.  I understand that those who participated had a great time.  Below are photos from the event. [Our thanks to Neeti for sending the photos.]

Neuroscience research featured in UCR Magazine

The Fall 2011 edition had a number of articles featuring the neuroscience research and teaching on campus.  ETOX faculty member Maggie Curras-Collazo was featured prominently in two of the articles, particularly in the article entitled, "Neuroscience for Kids" which describes a class that Dr. Curras-Collazo has developed to help UCR undergraduates reach out to the community.  If you would like orme information or to read the articles, they can be found here.

UCR ETOX alumni at the EMS meeting

The Environmental Mutagen Society held its annual meeting in Montreal this month and the UCR ETOX program was well represented.  Below are pictures of current and former students and postdocs who were in attendance.  Maik Schuler, a former postdoc, was also there but I wasn't able to get his picture.

David Eastmond with Jennifer Sasaki.

Krista Dobo

Former postdoc Shambhu Roy (on left) with current graduate student Kristi Capsel

Catherine Gibbons

Former postdoctoral fellow Rupa Doppalapudi

Positions available at ChemRisk

I recently received an email from Pam Chapman at ChemRisk indicating that they are interested in hiring current or upcoming graduates from our program. Below is information from her email. 

ChemRisk is a scientific consulting firm that specializes in using risk assessment methods to characterize and provide improved understanding of complex exposures involving chemicals, pharmaceuticals, or radionuclides in a variety of potentially contaminated media. We currently have more than 60 scientists experienced in addressing health and safety concerns, with backgrounds including toxicology, industrial hygiene, epidemiology, ecotoxicology, environmental sciences, medicine, statistical analysis, and risk assessment. We are hiring in all of our offices: San Francisco, CA, Boulder, CO, Chicago, IL, Orange County, CA and Pittsburgh, PA.

For more information on ChemRisk’s practice areas and team, please visit www.chemrisk.com.
                                                                             
Pamela S. Chapman, M.P.H.
Managing Epidemiologist
ChemRisk, LLC
Pioneers in Science. Leaders in Solutions.
101 2nd Street, Suite 700
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 618-3204 Direct
(415) 896-2444 Fax
www.chemrisk.com

Photos from the ETOX fall social

Our thanks to Director Yinsheng Wang and his wife for hosting the fall opening social at his house on Friday, Oct. 7. It was an nice event with good food and excellent company. Below are a number of photos from the event.

Our hosts, Yinsheng Wang and his wife.

Cranor featured in Inside Higher Ed

Dr. Carl Cranor, a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy and the Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program, is currently featured in the Academic Minute section of Inside Higher Ed talking about the effects of chemical exposure during development. This is a major focus of his recent book, "Legally Poisoned: How the Law Puts Us at Risk from Toxicants". The segment can be listened to by clicking here. Our congratulations to Carl for this recognition of his work.

Position in EPA Region 9 Office

I recently received this position announcement from a colleague at the EPA.

US EPA Region 9 is accepting applications for an open position in the Waste Division Permitting Office. This office leads hazardous waste permitting and corrective action cleanups to ensure adequate protection of human health and the environment. The successful applicant will serve as a project manager who will have the responsibility to develop permits for industrial facilities; work directly with the public to involve communities in the permitting and cleanup process; work with state governments on their permitting activities; and oversee corrective action cleanups on contaminated lands.

Opening Date: 12:01 am EST, July 5th, 2011
Closing Date: July 11, 2011
Position Title: Environmental Engineer/Scientist, GS-0819/1301-09/11
Salary: $56,172.00 to $88,349.00
Duty Location: 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA
Work Schedule: 40 hours per week
Who May Apply: All U.S. Citizens may apply
Qualifications: GS-09 –You need to have at least one year of full time experience defined as experience working in at least one environmental program (e.g. water, air, waste, toxic etc,) in an environmental field (e.g. inspection, enforcement, permits, etc) and experience participating in work groups, committees, or teams related to environmental science issues or projects; - OR Master's or equivalent graduate degree; or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in the engineering or science field.

GS-11 – You need to have at least one year of full time experience defined as experience in overseeing workplan development and overall project management; and experience preparing summaries of complex technical regulatory, or scientific material related to an environmental
program or addressing environmental justices issues or projects; OR Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree; or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in the academic discipline.

How to Apply: www.usajobs.gov . In the “WHAT” box in the center of the page, on the opening date, type announcement number:
LV-R9-DE-2011-0023

This announcement remains open 11:59 PM EST on the closing date.

Application Requirements: Create your profile in usajobs.gov and upload your resume and transcripts if necessary, into your profile

2011 Annual Student Symposium

The annual student symposium was held yesterday at the Botanical Gardens. Twenty-three students presented updates on their dissertation or thesis research. The presentations were all of high quality and it was great to see range of research being conducted by students of the program. Katie Zimmermann won the Futuko award for the outstanding presentation. Zhenshan Chen and Ashley Swanson were recognized as honorable mentions and Shuo Liu was recognized with the Best First Year Presentation award. Zhenshan Chen also received the Student's Choice Award. Dr. Eastmond received the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award for 2010-11. Our thanks to all of the speakers and a special congratulation to the award winners. We would also like to thank the Student Symposium Committee (Dr. Paul Ziemann, Chair, Katie Zimmermann, Richard Belcher, Laurel Dodgen, and Ashley Swanson) for doing an excellent job in organizing the event. We would like to give a special thanks for Dr. Janet Arey for contacting the alumni for updates on their activities. Below are pictures from the event.

Lei Guo's presentation

A group photo during the symposium. There was a very good turn-out of students, faculty and lab members.

The first of a series of photos taken during dinner - Thai food from Best Thai.

From the left: Dr. Yinsheng Wang, the Program Director with the award winners, Shuo Liu, Katie Zimmermann, Ashley Swanson, and Zhenshen Chen.

Gayatri Sankaran, the ETOX mini-GSA representative presenting Zhenshan Chen with the Student's choice award.

Gayatri Sankaran presenting Dr. David Eastmond with the faculty mentor award.

Jason Cheng receives Mentoring Award

ETOX and Chemistry faculty member Jason Cheng recently received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement. Our congratulations to Jason for this nice recognition of his work mentoring undergraduate researchers.

Commencement 2011

On Sunday June 12, UCR held its commencement ceremony for the College of Natural and Agricultural Resources. The ETOX program had 4 graduates - Lynnie Cua who received her Ph.D. degree (shown below with Prof. Marilyn Yates), and Doan-Si Bui, Minh Vuong and Terry Lopez who received M.S. degrees (or who will complete them this summer). Our congratulations to these individuals for attaining their educational and research goals. We wish them success in their future endeavors.

Cytogeneticist postion at Bioreliance

I recently received the following message from Marilyn Aardema, a friend and colleague. Please contact her if interested.

BioReliance will soon be posting an opening for a cytogenetics study director that will also be involved in research on new methods, etc. I’d like a PhD level, trained cytogeneticist. I’m reaching out to folks like yourself that are involved in training new folks, as well as how are tapped into the cytogenetics community! If you know of anyone, or can recommend other people I should contact, please let me know!

Marilyn J. Aardema, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer, Toxicology
BioReliance Corporation
9630 Medical Center Drive
Rockville, MD 20850
marilyn.aardema@bioreliance.com

Toxicology and Health Scientist Positions at EPA

The following information about toxicologist and health scientists positions at the EPA was sent to me by ETOX alumna Catherine Gibbons. I recently received some more details from Vincent Cogliano, acting head of the IRIS program, which are posted at the beginning of the post.

Currently, we can fill the following positions, all in Arlington VA near Washington DC:

1. Cancer biologist/Toxicologist, GS-14, $105-136k (closes 3 June)
2. Health scientist/Epidemiologist, GS-11/12/13, $62-115k (closes 17
June)
3. Statistician, GS-12/13, $74-115k (closes 7 June)
4. Biologist/Toxicologist, GS-11/12/13, $62-115k (closes 17 June)

Interested candidates must apply thru the website
http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/. Type "IRIS" into the keyword field and
these four announcements should appear.

Here are additional details for two of the positions:

Delegated Examining
RTP-ORD-DE-2011-0149

Title: Biologist/Toxicologist
Series and Grade Announced: GS-0401/0415-11/12/13
Full Performance Level: GS-13
SF-52 #: NCEA-11-033 and NCEA-11-034
Location of Position: Arlington, VA
Area of Consideration: Open to all U.S. Citizens
Position Type: Full-time; Permanent
Opening Date: May 20, 2011
Closing Date: June 17, 2011

Other Information
Number of Vacancies: Two
Position Risk Designation: This position has been designated as
Low Risk; new hires will be required to complete a NACI (National Agency Check and
Inquiries) at a cost of $125 to the program.

This announcement will be available for application Friday, May 20 at
www.usajobs.com.

Delegated Examining
RTP-ORD-DE-2011-0141

Title: Health Scientist
Series and Grade Announced: GS-0601-11/12/13
Full Performance Level: GS-13
SF-52 #: NCEA-11-035 and NCEA-11-036
Location of Position: Arlington, VA
Area of Consideration: Open to all U.S. Citizens
Position Type: Full-time; Permanent
Opening Date: May 20, 2011
Closing Date: June 17, 2011

Other Information
Number of Vacancies: Two
Position Risk Designation: This position has been designated as
Low Risk; new hires will be required to complete a NACI (National Agency Check and
Inquiries) at a cost of $125 to the program.

This announcement will be available for application Friday, May 20 at
www.usajobs.com.

Postdoctoral position in Genetic Toxicology at Roche

ETOX alumna Krista Dobo forwarded the following information on a postdoctoral position in Genetic Toxicology at Roche in Switzerland.

Post-doctoral Scientist Genetic Toxicology
Location
Switzerland - Basle-Town
Basle
Company/ Division
Pharmaceuticals
Job level
Entry level
Who to contact
Contact HR: W. Kinzy, phone:
+41 61 687 94 03
Service

The Position
As post doctoral fellow you will be a member of the Genetic Toxicology group. Expertise in
the Genetic Toxicology area within the company is centrally located in Basel within the
Non-Clinical Safety Department. You will work in close collaboration with the team members
to generate basic data on mutagenic/clastogenic effects (primarily in vivo) for the definition
of new models for risk assessment of mutation and tumor induction.
you will investigate dose response relations using established Genetic Toxicology test
system such as the micronucleus and Comet and the - to be adapted Pig-a - assays
you will characterise dose response curves employing appropriate mathematical models in
collaboration with our statisticians
you will present /publish these data in international meetings/journals
this project will be performed in close collaboration with an academic mentor (University of
Swansea)
This position is available on a temporary basis for two years.

You’re someone who wants to influence your own development. You’re looking for a
company where you have the opportunity to pursue your interests across functions and
geographies, and where a job title is not considered the final definition of who you are, but
the starting point.

For this position you will bring the following qualifications:
recent PhD in life sciences
experience in Genetic Toxicology and/or related fields
experience with flow cytometry techniques of advantage
willingness to integrate into small team/ ability to build personal relations
motivated to be successful working on high impact project using new inhouse technologies
proven ability to present and publish research data
proficient in English, other languages (e.g. German, French) of benefit.
Please apply online until June, 10th.

Who we are
At Roche, 80,000 people across 150 countries are pushing back the frontiers of healthcare.
Working together, we’ve become one of the world’s leading research-focused healthcare
groups. Our success is built on innovation, curiosity and diversity, and on seeing each
other’s differences as an advantage. To innovate healthcare, Roche has ambitious plans to
keep learning and growing – and is seeking people who have the same goals for themselves.
The headquarters in Basel is one of Roche’s largest sites, over 8,000 people from
approximately 80 countries work at Roche Basel. Favored by its geographic location in the
heart of Europe, the Basel area is one of the most dynamic economic regions in Switzerland
– a great place to live and work.

Roche is an Equal Opportunity Employer

The Roche employment website can be accessed here.

Job ID: 38102551818820110505

Best regards
Elmar
Elmar Gocke
Preclinical Safety,
Genotoxicology
F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd
CH 4070 BASEL
phone +41-61-6884797
fax +41-61-6888418
elmar.gocke@roche.com

EPA positions in San Francisco and Los Angeles

Matt Salazar of the EPA sent me information on a number of positions for which the agency will be advertising (see below). The positions are for environmental scientists in the Superfund division and he indicates that someone with an engineering or science bachelor's degree and a year of relevant experience can qualify for the GS9 position. Those with more education and/or experience can generally qualify for the higher level positions. There is a delegated exam for those who are not current or former EPA employees. More information can be found at the EPA career website. You can also contact him for more information. His email address is Salazar.Matt@epamail.epa.gov. The delegated exams open on May 20th. The closing date is May 26th.

GS-9/11: San Francisco (permanent)
GS-12/13 - San Francisco or Los Angeles (permanent)
GS-12/13 - Los Angeles (term 2-4 years)

Zhenshan Chen's new baby

Our congratulations to ETOX student Zhenshan Chen and his wife Duoduo Bao who recently gave birth to a handsome baby boy. Below is a picture of their new son Darren.

EXOX Graduate Student Association Goes Bowling

Kristi Capsel and Gayatri Sankaran of the Environmental Toxicology mini graduate student association organized a bowling activity at the local bowling alley in Moreno Valley on Saturday April 16. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Below are pictures of the event provided by Gayatri.

Gayatri and Kristi, the organizers.

EPA positions in the Risk Assessment Forum staff

I received this in an email this morning.

The Office of Administrative and Research Support (OARS) announces the
following job opportunities in the Office of Science Advisor, in the Risk
Assessment Forum Staff within the OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
(ORD):

To view the specifics of this announcement, please click
here. The open period for this position ends May 6.

For the second announcement for a similar position, click here.
The open period for this position ends on April 29.

Positions at the EPA in the Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water

Our thanks to ETOX alumna Heidi Bethel who forwarded the information below on a number of open positions at the EPA in their Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water in the Washington, DC area.

Attached below are vacancy announcements for multiple openings in the
Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water - Standards and Risk
Management Division.
These vacancies are open to the public (i.e., any U.S. citizen may
apply).

************

The vacancy announcement for the following position is posted to open on
USA Jobs, OPM's on-line application system. To be considered for this
position, applicants must apply on-line at the USAJobs.gov website by
the closing date of the announcement and follow the vacancy announcement
instructions for providing any applicable supplemental information.

ANNOUNCEMENT #: LV-OW-DE-2011-0019 (Delegated Examining - Open to Any
Qualified U.S. Citizen)

POSITION: Interdisciplinary (Environmental Engineer/Environmental
Scientist), GS-0819/1301-07/09

OFFICE: Office of Water/Office of Ground Water and Drinking
Water/Standards and Risk Management Division

LOCATION: Washington, DC
OPENING DATE: 04/15/2011

CLOSING DATE: 04/21/2011

Link


******************

The vacancy announcement for the following position is posted to open on
USA Jobs, OPM's on-line application system. To be considered for this
position, applicants must apply on-line at the USAJobs.gov website by
the closing date of the announcement and follow the vacancy announcement
instructions for providing any applicable supplemental information.

ANNOUNCEMENT #: LV-OW-DE-2011-0017 (Delegated Examining - Open to Any
Qualified U.S. Citizen)

POSITION: Interdisciplinary (Environmental Engineer/Environmental
Scientist), GS-0819/1301-11/12

OFFICE: Office of Water/Office of Ground Water and Drinking
Water/Standards and Risk Management Division

LOCATION: Washington, DC
OPENING DATE: 04/15/2011

CLOSING DATE: 04/21/2011

Link

The Hunters have a baby boy

Our congratulations to ETOX alumnus Wesley Hunter (Ph.D., 2009) and his wife Katie on the birth of their son, Joseph. Attached is a picture of the new baby. We are very happy for them.

Spring Flowers in Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park Near UC Riverside

Yesterday, I went mountain biking in Sycamore Canyon Park, a wilderness park located about one mile from campus (and my home). This has been a particularly rainy year in Riverside and the wildflowers are currently in full bloom and quite beautiful. Below are a few pictures from the park.

I found the expanses of yellow flowers to be particularly beautiful.

A pool formed by the small creek that runs through the middle of the park.

If you have really good eyes (or a good imagination), a hiker or mountain biker can be seen at the top of the trail in the upper left.