WASHINGTON – The American Medical Association (AMA) presented Russell “Rusty” Thomas, Ph.D., director of the Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with the AMA Award for Outstanding Government Service. A science leader in the biotechnology sector for more than 25 years, Thomas has played an integral role in transforming the way chemicals are assessed for health effects.
At EPA, Thomas built on scientific advances of mapping the human genome and high-throughput screening technologies to develop tools to assess the health effects from chemicals. The approaches today screen thousands of chemicals for effects including cancer and reproductive and developmental toxicity. They also do so with remarkable efficiency and at a fraction of the previous cost. In the past, using animal testing to evaluate chemicals for endocrine disruption, EPA was only able to evaluate about 70 chemicals over 25 years, at a cost of approximately $1 million per chemical. By contrast, using approaches developed by Thomas’s team, over 2,000 chemicals were evaluated in three years for a cost of just $30,000 per chemical. These approaches are being used to screen and prioritize known chemicals as well as emerging chemicals that communities are grappling with, like per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS).
“A visionary leader whose work has inspired collaboration with entrepreneurs, scientists and technologists who’d rarely previously paired with the federal government, Russell Thomas has changed the way EPA screens chemicals, made incredible strides in protecting human health, and saved millions of dollars,” said AMA Board Chair Willie Underwood III, M.D., MSc, MPH. “For a lifetime of work, leadership and dedication to the EPA and people of our country, it is an honor to present Russell Thomas with the AMA Award for Outstanding Government Service.”
Before joining the EPA, Thomas performed bioinformatics and genomics research in the biotechnology sector and gained experience in high-throughput screening and in vitro assay development in the biopharma sector. He also worked as an investigator and a senior manager at a non-profit research institute.
Thomas earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Tabor College and both his Master of Science in Radioecology and Health Physics and Ph.D. in Environmental Health and Toxicology from Colorado State University.
