Dean Grasso Featured in EPA Report of Science Advisory Committee Accomplishments
Release Date: 11-21-2008
Author: Dawn Marie Densmore
Email: Dawn.Densmore@uvm.edu
Phone: Array Fax: 802-656-8802
A soon-to-be published report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "Science Advice for EPA — Current and Future Challenges, "recognizes the service and accomplishments of EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) members, including former SAB chair and dean of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, Domenico Grasso.
Grasso, an environmental engineer, served as vice chair of the EPA Science Advisory Board and chair of the EPA Science Advisory Board Committee on Valuing the Protection of Ecological Systems and Services from 1998 through 2007. He is also chair emeritus of the SAB Committee on Environmental Engineering. Grasso is featured in the report along with EPA Science Advisory Board colleagues from Harvard, Carnegie-Mellon, Stanford, Georgia Tech, and the World Bank.
EPA's strategy to reorient the agency's ecological research program around the concept of ecosystem services was evaluated by Dr. Grasso's committee featured in the report.
"Strengthening EPA's ability to assess the value of ecological protection is a priority for the agency because life depends on ecosystems and the services they provide" says Grasso. The committee's goal was to help EPA improve its ability to identify, quantify, and assess the value of the ecological effects of its activities, thereby helping decision-makers to make more informed choices among environmental policy options. This novel and important approach has "the potential to be transformative for environmental decision making as well as ecological science,"according to the report.
"I considered my EPA advisory role a unique chance to serve and strengthen our nation's scientific abilities and decision-making around environmental and economic issues,"said Grasso, "It was an honor to work with so many distinguished colleagues from across the U.S. and hope our efforts continue to inform and advance the nation's 21st century environmental policies."