Hamner Appoints New Director of Institute for Chemical Safety Sciences

The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, has appointed Russell Thomas as the director of the Institute for Chemical Safety Sciences (ICSS), where he previously served as associate director. Thomas will retain his leadership of the Center for Genomic Biology and Bioinformatics, part of The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences.

Thomas completed his M.S. in radiation ecology and Ph.D. in toxicology at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. He performed postdoctoral research in molecular biology and genomics at the McArdle Cancer Research Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. He has worked at The Hamner for the past eight years, where his research interests have focused on the development and application of genomic technologies and bioinformatic tools to toxicology and chemical risk assessment.

Melvin Andersen, who has presided as ICSS director for the past two years, has been named the inaugural Charles E. Hamner, Jr. Distinguished Fellow, and will also now serve as associate director for the ICSS.