ESE’s Turpin to serve on EPA panel

December 16, 2015

Dr. Barbara Turpin

Barbara Turpin, PhD, professor of environmental sciences and engineering (ESE) at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been appointed for a three-year term of service on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Particulate Matter Review Panel, part of the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC).

The CASAC committees provide independent expert advice to the EPA administrator regarding review and revision of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, designed to protect public health.

“This appointment is a well-deserved recognition of Barb Turpin’s stature in the air-quality scientific community,” said Michael Aitken, PhD, ESE professor and chair. “Her work on the role of aqueous chemistry in the formation and composition of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) has been of particular interest to EPA. Because respirable PM has such a major influence on human health, understanding its formation and behavior is essential to developing policy approaches to controlling air pollution from PM and its consequent health effects.”

Turpin joined the UNC Gillings School faculty in 2015, after a long and successful academic career at Rutgers University. Her exposure science orientation and experience collaborating with epidemiologists and toxicologists are seen as assets in her new role.