The White House has announced the nomination of Rafael Moure-Eraso to chair the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

Rafael Moure-Eraso is currently serving as a Professor and Graduate Coordinator for the Department of Work Environment in the School of Health and Environment at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he has been Chair of the department for the last five years, according to a White House statement.

He has been a member of the faculty at the University of Massachusetts for twenty two years --12 as an Associate Professor (1988) and 10 as a full Professor since 2000. From 1993-2000, Dr. Moure-Eraso was a Visiting Lecturer in Occupational Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

In 1994-95, he held an Intergovernmental Personnel Assignment at the U.S. Department of Labor as a special senior advisor on the prevention of chemical exposures to the Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA).

Prior to joining the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Dr. Moure-Eraso served for 15 years (1973-1988) as an Industrial Hygienist Engineer with the national offices of two international unions: the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) and the United Automobile Workers (UAW).

His ten years as an Industrial Hygienist of the OCAW gave him substantial field experience in the Chemical and Petro-Chemical industry.

Dr. Moure-Eraso has been a member of the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health for OSHA and a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). He also was a member of both the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council and the Board of Scientific Counselors to the National Toxicological Program for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institute of Health (NIEHS).

He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering (University of Pittsburgh ‘67, Bucknell University, ’70) and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Environment Health (Industrial Hygiene) (University of Cincinnati ’74, ’82). He has been a Certified Industrial Hygienist for Comprehensive Practice (CIH)since 1985. Dr. Moure-Eraso is a senior member of AIChE, AIHA, ACGIH and APHA where he had held national leadership positions.