Dr. William H. Farland is the Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Center for Environmental Assessment which has major responsibility for the conduct of chemical specific risk assessments in support of EPA regulatory programs, the development of Agency-wide guidance on risk assessment, and the conduct of research to improve risk assessment. He has served in this position since 1988. Prior to his selection as Office Director, Dr. Farland served as the Director, Carcinogen Assessment Group and Acting Director, Reproductive Effects Assessment Group. Dr. Farland began his EPA career in 1979 as a Health Scientist in the EPA's Office of Toxic Substances. Dr. Farland's career has been characterized by a commitment to the development of national and international approaches to the testing and assessment of the fate and effects of environmental agents. He currently leads the Agency's multi-year effort to reassess dioxin and related compounds.

Dr. Farland holds a Ph.D. (1976) from UCLA in Cell Biology and Biochemistry, a M.A. (1972) in Zoology from the same institution and a B.S. (1970) from Loyola University, Los Angeles. He was awarded an Individual National Research Service Award from the National Cancer Institute to pursue postdoctoral training in DNA Damage and Repair at the University of California, Irvine and at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Dr. Farland serves on a number of committees and advisory boards. Within the Federal government he is a member of the National Toxicology Program's (NTP) Executive Committee, EPA Liaison to the Public Health Service Committee to Coordinate Environmental Health and Related Programs (CCEHRP) past Executive Secretary of the Federal Coordinating Council on Science Engineering and Technology's Ad Hoc Working Group on Risk Assessment and co-chair of the Committee on Life Sciences and Health's Subcommittee on Risk Assessment. He is also currently serves on the Office of Science and Technology's Committee on Environment and Natural Resources' (CENR) Risk Assessment Subcommittee. Dr. Farland served as co-chair of the Federal Liaison Group (FLG) to the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Risk Assessment Methods (CRAM). He is also a member of the Science Advisory Panel of the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology (CIIT), a member of the Science Advisory Panel on EMF Research at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and a member of the Purdue University Dioxin Research Advisory Panel. He has been a member of the Editorial Board for Risk Analysis since 1987.