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. 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, and life-cycle exposure assessment.
He is currently focused on scientific methods for cumulative impact assessment of health risks in communities that may be vulnerable to disproportionate environmental impacts. He has recently been Principal Investigator for several key research studies related to cumulative impact assessment for the American Chemistry Council Long-Range Research Initiative and the American Petroleum Institute.
Dr. Rish graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a doctorate in Engineering and Public Policy.