Jay J. MesserDr. Messer holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Engineering Sciences from the University of Florida. He served on the Environmental Engineering faculties at the University of Florida and Utah State University. As a Visiting Professor at North Carolina Central University, he developed the first accredited undergraduate environmental sciences major at an Historically Black University in the US.

At EPA, he served as director of the National Stream Survey, the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), and ORD research laboratories in Research Triangle Park and Las Vegas, Nevada. He served on EPA's Risk Assessment Forum, and currently serves on the editorial boards of the journals, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment and Environmental Bioindicators. He has authored more than100 technical papers and publications, and has received EPA's Bronze, Silver, and Gold Medals.

Dr. Messer also served as Science Advisor and Legislative Assistant to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the 102nd Congress, and spent a year on detail to EPA's Inspector General, where he participated in an evaluation of EPA's use of science in developing its most significant regulations. He is currently the Senior Science Advisor in the Office of the Director of the ORD National Center for Environmental Assessment, where he has worked for the past 7 years on the team developing EPA's Report on the Environment.