ROBERT A. MICHAELS; PhD, CEP

Professional Positions

• RAM TRAC Corporation (New York, USA)

Assessment and Management of Health Risks, President, 1986-present

• Journal of Environmental Risk, Impact, and Claims

(Taylor & Francis, UK and US), Co-Editor-in-Chief, 2026 - present

Editorial Advisory Boards

• Environmental Claims Journal (Taylor & Francis; UK and US), 2024 – ‘25

• Environmental Practice (Cambridge U. Press; UK and US), 2006 – ‘15

• Environmental Engineering & Policy (Springer-Verlag, Germany and US), 1998 to 2001

Selected Professional Affiliations

• Academy of Board-Certified Environmental Professionals (ABCEP), Trustee, 1990 to 2013

• ABCEP Certification Review Board, Chairperson, 1993 – 2013

• National Association of Environmental Professionals, Board Member, 1993 to 2013

• NFPA Comm. on Classification & Properties of Hazardous Chemicals, 1991-2026

• State of Maine Scientific Advisory Panel, Chairperson, 1984 – ‘90

• New York Academy of Sciences, Elected Life Member, 1986

• ABCEP, Board Certified, 1986

Since 1986 Dr. Michaels has been President of Schenectady, New York-based RAM TRAC Corporation, and a toxicologist specializing in assessment and management of risks to public health potentially posed by environmental contaminants.  He has been an analyst and expert witness on effects of petroleum hydrocarbons and halogenated organics, including chlorinated and fluorinated compounds such as DDT, PCBs, chlorinated dioxins, and PFAS.  He has long-term consulting experience on PFAS in groundwater near Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics in Hoosick Falls, New York and in surface and well waters downstream of Chemours Fayetteville Works in North Carolina.  He has assessed health risks posed by petroleum hydrocarbons, for example, diesel and jet fuels in Corpus Christie, Texas.  This experience runs deep, beginning with MS Degree research on chlorinated organics, specifically DDT effects on freshwater phytoplankton.  It continued with doctoral research on PCB effects on marine phytoplankton.  Dr. Michaels also has a decade of recent involvement in litigation on EPA-mandated Hudson River PCB dredging by the General Electric Company.  Citations of his publications and sworn testimony (including depositions, final page) are included in this CV.

Dr. Michaels has a strong reputation for objectivity, having served national and international Fortune 500 clients; Federal, State and Municipal government clients including the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) and the New York State Attorney’s General Office; and, in the public interest, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).  He consulted for OTA on Love Canal (in New York State) and, in 2002, was appointed as a Consultant to the U. S. EPA Science Advisory Board.  For years he chaired the State of Maine’s Scientific Advisory Panel.  For 20 years he chaired the Certification Review Board of the Academy of Board-Certified Environmental Professionals (ABCEP).  He has served for decades as Secretary of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Committee on Classification and Properties of Hazardous Chemicals, and as a Board Member of the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP).For over a decade Dr. Michaels served on the Editorial Advisory Boards of international science journals; now he is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Environmental Risk, Impact, and Claims (Taylor & Francis, UK and US).  He earned his doctorate at SUNY/Stony Brook in 1979, was elected a Life Member of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1986, and in 2004 was awarded ABCEP’s Kramer Medal recognizing his professional contributions.