Environmental Toxicologist or Biologist Position at US FDA

The US Food and Drug Adminstration's Center for Veterinary Medicine is searching for an environmental toxicologist or biologist to help conduct "scientific evaluations and regulatory reviews prepared to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This includes review of environmental assessments, terrestrial and/or aquatic ecotoxicology studies (e.g., soil microorganisms, plants, earthworms, dung fauna, algae, aquatic invertebrates, fish), and other data (e.g., environmental fate, transport, and exposure data) submitted by applicants of new animal drugs, feed/food additive petitions, and other types of applications." The position is in Rockville, Maryland and it available immediately.  More information can be found here. Our thanks to ETOX alumnus, Wesley Hunter, who forwarded the information to ETOX professor Jay Gan.   

Toxicologist Positions at the Institute for In Vitro Sciences

The Institute for In Vitro Sciences is looking to fill several open toxicologist and other positions in its Gaithersburg, Maryland location.  The positions include a toxicologist/study director position, a toxicologist position, a biologist position, and  respiratory toxicologist positions.  More information can be found here.  Our thanks to UCR alumna Dr. Careen Khachatoorian for directing the information to us.  

EPA Superfund Positions in Several Western States

Below is a message that I received from Emily Pimental of the USEPA. 

On Tuesday, August 3, 2021, the Superfund and Emergency Management Division in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9 San Francisco Office will have job opportunities for Remedial Project Managers posted at https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/609284600. These job opportunities are for numerous positions based out of San Francisco for Remedial Project Manager positions working on abandoned uranium mines on Navajo Nation, other Superfund Sites on the National Priority List and Federal Facilities cleanups in Arizona, Nevada, California. Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands  To qualify for the position, applicants must meet the physical, life, or related engineering science education requirements and the related specialized experience described in the USAJOBS.gov announcement. Please forward this notice to any relevant contacts, professional organizations, or other interested parties. 

These positions are only posted and accepting applications for a limited time (only 10 business days – from August 3-16, 2021), so please distribute notice of this announcement immediately, and apply early on USAJobs.gov to ensure applications are submitted correctly with all the required documents.   

Interested applicants need to setup their USAJobs.gov account and obtain and upload their most up-to-date resumes, academic transcripts, and other needed documents to their USAJobs.gov profile. Applicants can find the job announcement on USAJobs.gov at https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/609284600 or by searching for “Environmental Protection Agency” in the Keyword field and “San Francisco, CA” in the location field. If the post does not appear, this means the job announcement has not been posted yet and the application period has not yet been opened.  

For additional information on this position, please visit the job announcement linked above.  

Martins-Green and Martinez, Faculty Mentors to Two New Goldwater Scholars

Shayan Saeed and Ryan Gates, two UCR undergraduate students have been selected as Goldwater scholars.  The Goldwater scholarship is one of the most prestigious honors given to undergraduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.   Shayan Saeed has worked for the past two years in the laboratory of Professor Manuela Martins-Green and Ryan Gates has worked in the lab of Ernest Martinez.  Both faculty mentors are members of the ETOX Graduate Program faculty.  More information about the scholarships and the students can be found on the UCR News website.  Our congratulations to Shayan and Ryan for these prestigious awards as well as Drs. Martins-Green and Martinez for this recognition of their mentees.  

Toxicologist Position at DTSC in Berkeley or Sacramento

Our thanks to ETOX alumnus Efrem Neuwirth who forwarded the email message below.    

"The Human and Ecological Risk Office (HERO) at the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) (CalEPA) is recruiting for a Staff Toxicologist in the Human Health Risk Assessment section.  The primarily focused is on the evaluation of the risks from contaminant exposures to human health and providing recommendations to Project Managers on risk assessment and toxicology issues such as potential cleanup levels. Our regulatory work is scientifically-driven, and our goal is to oversee and evaluate toxic impacts from contamination and provide expert input on toxicology, human and ecological risk assessment, exposure assessment, and risk communication for multiple DTSC programs throughout California. This includes programs focused on site cleanup and also the Safer Consumer Products (SCP) Program, which evaluates chemicals in products and recommends safer alternatives.  In HERO, you would have unique exposure to a wide range of work throughout the State of California. This work includes, but is not limited to, chemical specific assessments and also active and inactive military sites, private and voluntary cleanup program sites, abandoned superfund mine sites, and Title 22 permitted sites.

As a member of HERO, the Staff Toxicologist serves as a technical consultant and subject matter expert supporting other DTSC staff and management across multiple DTSC programs. In addition, the incumbent will interface with external stakeholders, including other State and Federal regulatory agencies, and facility responsible parties (RPs) and their consultants. The incumbent will conduct a wide range of technical document reviews and oversight at State and Federal-lead sites by preparing technical comments and memoranda, attending technical meetings with RPs and public stakeholders, and providing technical presentations to regulatory staff from DTSC and other state and federal agencies, plus private and public stakeholders. As a subject matter expert, the incumbent will also be expected to collaborate in the development and revision of pertinent technical guidance within the purview of DTSC.

Anyone that is interested please see the job posting at:" https://www.calcareers.ca.gov/CalHrPublic/Jobs/JobPosting.aspx?JobControlId=253036

Another Successful Annual Student Symposium

On Monday June 14, the Annual Student Symposium of the Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program was held by by videoconference.  As in recent years, most of the student presentations were given during the scheduled weekly seminar series with the talks from the more senior students and postdocs presented during the symposium itself.  The symposium, the talks and the research presented were of all of high quality and were a great way for the students and faculty to find out about the graduate student research being performed at UCR.  Special thanks go to Prof. Ying-Hsuan Lin and Alexa Canchola who chaired the symposium committee as well as Roxana Coreas, Qiaoshi Jiang, Jiekai Yin and Desiree Aispuro who served on the committee and assisted with the preparations.   Our congratulations go to the following students who won awards for their presentations.  

Fukuto award: Philip Tanabe 

Seminar presentation awards
• First place: Jun Yuan, Alexa Canchola
• Second place: Benjamin Maki, Victoria McGruer

Symposium presentation awards: 

• First place: Tianyu Qi
• Second place: Roxana Coreas

First-year presentation award 

• Ching-Hsin Yang 

Audience participation awards 

• Sarah Avila-Barnard
• My (Crystal) Hua 

Alumna Nicole Sparks Profiled by Three National Organizations

The experiences of Dr. Nicole Sparks, ETOX alumna, have recently been highlighted by the Society for Birth Defects and Prevention in its "Meet a Member" feature, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in an Environmental Factor article on the MOSIAC grant program, and the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB) in a feature for Women's History Month on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  The articles can be found at the links above.  Our congratulations to Nicole for these nice recognitions.  [The photos are from the Society for Birth Defects and Prevention article.]