Thomas J. Goehl, PhD

Thomas J. Goehl received his bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame in 1964 and his doctoral degree in biochemistry from Wayne State University in 1969. His thesis dealt with biophysical studies on the biochemistry of atherosclerosis as well as the metabolism of collagen and elastin. Immediately after graduation he joined the Sterling Winthrop Research Institute, Rensselaer, New York, and served as a group leader in the Drug Metabolism Department conducting studies on the absorption, distribution, and excretion of drugs with major responsibility in analytical methodology development.

In 1975 he joined the faculty of the Medicinal Chemistry Department at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he taught undergraduate and graduate classes on drug analysis and medicinal chemistry. In 1978 he took a position as research chemist and project officer in the Division of Biopharmaceutics, Bureau of Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Washington, D.C. His research focused on development of drug assay methods, dissolution methodology, and pharmacokinetic studies. He left the FDA in 1982 to join the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, where he served as the head of chemistry and toxicokinetics. In this position he directed the chemistry and toxicokinetics activities of the National Toxicology Program.

In 1994, he became the science editor for EHP. He managed the peer-review process and was responsible for the identification of environmental issues to be addressed by the journal. He was appointed editor-in-chief in 2001. In this position, he is responsible for the management of editorial content and production of the journal. His research interests include understanding and improvement of chemical separations, development and application of methodology for determination of trace concentrations of chemicals in biological samples, chemistry requirements for toxicology studies, and toxicokinetics.

Goehl has received several awards, including a Wolf Memorial Foundation Scholarship, a NASA Fellowship, an FDA Award of Merit, and NIH Merit Awards, and he was elected to the chemistry honorary fraternity Phi Lambda Upsilon. He has been invited to make presentations at many institutions including the University of Mexico, the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh, the Czechoslovak-US Science and Technology Program, and the Taiwanese Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. He is a member of the American Chemical Society. He has published approximately 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals.