The project is comprised of three groups - Epidemiology, Environmental Engineering, and Communication (Community Health Sciences).

Epidemiology - Hal Morgenstern
Hal Morgenstern, Ph.D.
      Dr. Morgenstern, Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, is a well-known epidemiologist with extensive research experience in a wide range of public-health areas, including musculoskeletal conditions, cancers, neuropsychiatric disorders, nonintentional injuries, cardiovascular disease, psychosocial aspects of disease, occupational and environmental health, research methods, and access to and quality of health care. He is the principal investigator of two research projects on the effects of marijuana use on the risks of lung and upper-aerodigestive-tract cancers and cancer incidence in the community surrounding the Rocketdyne Laboratory. Other recent projects include studies of medical versus chiropractic care in the treatment of low-back pain, the use of cervical manipulation versus mobilization in the treatment of neck pain, the effects of occupational exposures to low-level ionizing radiation and chemicals on cancer mortality in nuclear and aerospace workers, health-impact assessment of planned interventions, forecasting health trends in California, the effects of pool-fencing ordinances on childhood drowning in Los Angeles County, the occurrence of tardive dyskinesia among psychiatric patients treated with antipsychotics, and methods of ecologic analysis in epidemiology. He has authored or co-authored numerous publications in the biomedical literature, including an influential textbook on Epidemiologic Research. In addition, Dr. Morgenstern has received four teaching awards in the schools of public health at Yale University (1985) and UCLA (1989; 1997; and 1999) and the Tyroler Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Epidemiology (2003).

Engineering - Yoram Cohen and Thomas Harmon
Yoram Cohen, Ph.D., M.A.Sc., B.A.Sc.
      Dr. Yoram Cohen is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, Director of the UCLA Center for Environmental Risk Reduction, and Founding Director of the UCLA Water Technology Research Center. He served as a member of the National Research Council Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology (BEST) and received the 2003 Lawrence K. Cecil Award in Environmental Chemical Engineering from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Dr. Cohen has served as Associate Editor of a number of scientific journals and Editor of a number of special journal issues and environmental volumes. His research program focuses on environmental transport modeling and impact assessment, water decontamination, membrane separation processes and nanotechnology. He has published over one hundred and fifty papers in the above research areas. Dr. Cohen has been active in advising government agencies, industry and non-profit groups in areas relating to pollutants transport and fate, hazardous waste control and environmental impact assessment. He has served on numerous Committees of the National Academy of Sciences, the EPA Science Advisory Board, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Dr. Thomas C. Harmon, Ph.D.,
      Dr. Harmon is Professor and Founding Faculty of the School of Engineering at the University of California, Merced, where he chairs the Environmental Systems Graduate Program. He also directs the contaminant transport observation and management research in the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center housed at UCLA. He has a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University (1992). He previously served as Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at UCLA. Dr. Harmon's current research interests include: environmental microsensor fabrication, embedded networks of sensors in environmental monitoring, understanding and managing non-pointsource pollution. He has published 30 articles in refereed scientific journals and made more than 100 presentations of his work at various professional conferences and symposia.

Communications - Deborah Glik
In September 2000, the UCLA Health and Media Research Group was hired as an independent contractor to help communicate the results of past and upcoming UCLA scientific studies about the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) to the local community. An important part of our role is to inform the community about the numerous resources that are available to them in nearby libraries and on the Internet.

Dr. Deborah Glik, Sc.D., Professor of the UCLA School of Public Health’s Department of Community Health Sciences and Director of the UCLA Health and Media Research Group, has over 20 years of experience in conducting research on health behavior change, health communications, formative research, and program evaluation in a variety of settings having worked in both domestic and international arenas. Substantive areas of research include evaluation and promotion of a broad range of programs and social interventions especially as they interface with the mass media, such as entertainment education, teen theater, marketing, and multimedia development. Other current projects include development and evaluation of multimedia education in Latino communities, media advocacy, and risk communication efforts related to the environment, bioterrorism, and disasters. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications and chapters on the subject of health behavior, health communications, and program evaluation.

Introduction | Prior Studies | Current Study | Who We Are | Timeline | Funding | Contact Information | Home