Professional Profile
Dr. William (Bill) Rish has more than 40 years of experience consulting on matters of environmental exposure and risk assessment. He has prepared hundreds of risk assessments and managed numerous large, complex site investigations and remediation projects, and has been active for many years in the development of federal and state rules, guidance, and policy regarding risk assessment. Dr. Rish was a pioneer in the development of probabilistic methods for evaluating uncertainty in estimating chemical and radiological human health risk from environmental impacts.
Dr. Rish has worked across the nation on sites subject to CERCLA, RCRA Corrective Action and Closure, and state orders and voluntary action. He also has worked on Department of Energy and Department of Defense projects. In addition, he has a strong background in systems failure and accident analysis, including chemical and nuclear systems. He provides consulting and workshops to regulators, attorneys, and industry on communicating environmental risk to the public.
Dr. Rish has experience with the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), including Section 6 experience preparing existing high-priority chemical risk evaluations, conditions-of-use development, life-cycle exposure assessment, and hazard assessment. He also has TSCA Section 5 experience with Premanufacture Notification (PMN) submittals, new chemical safety assessment and prioritization, and obtaining CAS designations.
He is currently focused on scientific methods for assessing cumulative health risks at communities that may be vulnerable to disproportionate environmental impacts. Dr. Rish is chair of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Human Health Risk Assessment Interest Group, and has chaired sessions on methods for cumulative impact assessment at the past two SETAC annual North America conferences; this leadership will continue at the upcoming SETAC conference. Bill is also a member of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) Justice, Equity, and Risk Specialty Group.
Dr. Rish graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a doctorate in Engineering and Public Policy.