SCIENTIST CAREER

Valerie G. Zartarian, PhD

On 12/31/25 I retired from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after 27 years of public service. I worked in EPA’s Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research Laboratory from 1998-2019 and the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment from 2019-2025. As a Senior Research Physical Scientist and Research Environmental Engineer, I led human exposure science and decision-support tools for technical assistance and regulatory support. Together with dedicated colleagues and many collaborators, I developed, applied, and provided national-scale exposure simulation models, multi-scale geospatial mapping approaches, data analyses for children’s health risk assessments, and web-based community tools for informing decisions and improving environmental public health. With an extensive research publication record on a wide range of chemicals and environmental public health issues, my work is internationally renowned. I led and coauthored >70 technical journal articles, book chapters, guidance documents, and technical reports. I earned a PhD and MS from Stanford University (Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Science; 1997 and 1993) and a BS from Princeton University (Civil Engineering, Water Resources; 1989). Prior to graduate school and EPA, I worked as an environmental engineering consultant with Camp, Dresser, & McKee, Inc. in Boston (1989-1991), Anderson-Nichols in Boston (summer 1988), and Watson-Hawksley in High Wycombe, England (summer 1987). More details are in the links below.

EPA Biosketch
EPA Career Overview
Presidential Rank Award Nomination
EPA Science Matters Interview