John D. Walker, Ph.D., M.P.H.

John has over 30 years of professional academic, industrial and government experience in environmental toxicology and chemistry. Since 1989 he has been Director of the Toxic Substances Control Act Interagency Testing Committee (ITC), an independent advisory committee to the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) that includes representatives from 16 U.S. Government organizations. In prior years John was a Senior Scientist with the U.S. EPA (10 years), a Regulatory Toxicologist with FDA (2 years), an Environmental Scientist with Lockheed Martin (3 years) and a Research Associate at the University of Maryland (3 years).

John received his 1968 bachelor's degree in chemistry and biology magna cum laude from Kent State University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He studied microbiology at the University of Dayton where he was elected to Sigma Xi and studied aquatic toxicology at the Ohio State University's Franz T. Stone Laboratory while earning his Ph.D. in 1971. His 1978 M.P.H. is from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

John is a Charter Member of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), Editor of SETAC's International Journal, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and an Emeritus Member of the American Society for Microbiology.

John has written 2 books on Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships, published 144 papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented 136 abstracts at national and international professional society meetings. He was the first recipient of the American Fisheries Society/U.S. EPA Science Achievement Award in Biology/Ecology, has been awarded 3 U.S. EPA Bronze medals, and was awarded the 2003 U.S. EPA Unsung Hero Award for his work with Special Olympics.

John is married with 4 children and is the Golf Development Team Coach for Maryland Special Olympics.