News Release

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

NIEHS Selects Editor-In-Chief for Environmental Health Perspectives

Hugh A. Tilson, Ph.D, a nationally recognized environmental health scientist, has been named the new editor-in-chief of Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), a journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Tilson will start at NIEHS Nov. 26, 2007 and will officially begin his new role as editor-in-chief Jan. 1, 2008. Since 1972, the NIEHS has published EHP to provide a worldwide forum for research and education on environmental health sciences.

"Hugh Tilson is an outstanding neurotoxicologist who is well known in the environmental research arena, especially among his former colleagues at NIEHS," said William J. Martin II, M.D., director of the NIEHS Office of Translational Research, which oversees EHP. "We are very fortunate to have Hugh with his many years of senior management experience assume this important role." Tilson worked at NIEHS as a researcher from 1976-1989.

As editor-in-chief, Tilson will be a full-time federal employee responsible for the management of the monthly journal publication including editorial content, overall operations, and supervision of the staff. He will oversee the activities of the Board of Associate Editors and the Editorial Review Board, and will be responsible for selecting and refilling vacancies on these boards. The boards play a critical role in soliciting and reviewing manuscripts. Tilson will also direct the contract support that assists with the production and distribution of EHP.

"I am very pleased to have the opportunity to lead the dedicated staff at EHP," said Tilson. "EHP is one of the most important tools we have to get information out to the world about environmental health research. I intend to make it an even more powerful, user-friendly resource."

Currently, Tilson is serving as the national director for the Human Health Research Program at the Environmental Protection Agency, a position he has held since 2005. Tilson began working at the EPA in 1989 as director of the Neurotoxicology Division. His tenure at EPA also included five years as the assistant laboratory director for multimedia research in the Research Coordination Branch of the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory.

Prior to his career at EPA, he served in the Laboratory of Behavioral and Neurological Toxicology and Laboratory of Molecular and Integrative Neuroscience at NIEHS. He has also held various adjunct associate professor positions at UNC Chapel Hill, NC. Tilson received his Ph.D. in psychopharmacology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and his BA in physiological psychology from Texas Technological University in Lubbock, Texas.

Tilson has edited several books and published more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He has also served as the associate editor of at least two science journals including, NeuroToxicology, 1978-2004, and Toxicology of Applied Pharmaocology from 1985-1995. He has also served on several editorial boards.

Under Tilson’s leadership EHP will remain an open-access publication, available free of charge on-line at www.ehponline.org. EHP will also continue to be produced as a printed journal available through subscription.

The primary mission of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), one of 27 Institutes and Centers at the National Institutes of Health, is to reduce the burden of human illness and disability by understanding how the environment influences the development and progression of human disease. For additional information, visit the NIEHS Web site at http://www.niehs.nih.gov/home.htm.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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