Closing Keynote Speaker

Change is inevitable. Core values, however, should remain steadfast. These are truths that frame the challenges that environmental health programs at academic institutions will always face in keeping in step with a changing tune. Academic environmental health and safety programs have made impressive gains over the last half-century in the quality of their service, the professionalism of their staffs, and the leadership ability of their managers. As a result, institutions have come to recognize the value of their service. Successful environmental health and safety programs have learned how to work smarter, to reallocate resources when necessary, to manage change caused by budget and staff reductions, and to survive crisis situations. What accounts most for this success? It well may be the character of the environmental health and safety program. Programs that respect and reflect the core values of an academic institution, which include academic excellence, academic freedom, pursuit of knowledge, access to information, and diversity, are the most successful. The horrific September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States brought in its wake unprecedented new challenges for academic institutions and for their environmental health and safety programs, some of which may impact core values of academia. As environmental health and safety programs change in response to these events, it will be important to draw upon the skills honed by past successes and to remain mindful of the core values of the academic enterprise.

Biography
W. Emmett Barkley joined the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1989 as the Institute’s first director of laboratory safety. His prior experience includes 24 years at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he began his career in environmental health and safety. In 1964 he helped develop the first biological safety program at the National Cancer Institute as part of the Institute’s Special Viral Leukemia Program. In 1974 he established and became the director of the research safety program of the National Cancer Institute. In 1979 Dr. Barkley founded the NIH Division of Safety and served as director for the following eight years. From 1983 to 1987 he also served as director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Applied Biosafety Programmes and Research at the NIH. In 1987 he became the director of the NIH Division of Engineering Services.

Dr. Barkley was a principal contributor to several authoritative guidelines in the fields of biological and chemical safety including the NIH Guidelines for the Laboratory Use of Chemical Carcinogens, the NIH Recombinant DNA Guidelines, and the first and second editions of the CDC/NIH publication Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories, for which he was co-editor. Dr. Barkley is the recipient of the U.S. Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal, and the American Chemical Society 2000 Howard Fawcett Chemical Health and Safety Award. He holds a bachelor of civil engineering degree from the University of Virginia and a doctorate degree in environmental health from the University of Minnesota.

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