Peter deFur is an environmental scientist with experience and expertise in the fields of ecological and human health risk assessment, toxicology, dioxin and PCB toxicity, contaminated site clean-up and related issues.

Peter deFur

Dr. Peter deFur

President

Dr. Peter L. deFur is president and owner of the consulting firm Environmental Stewardship Concepts, LLC. Dr. deFur has research and practical experience in the areas of ecological risk assessment, environmental regulations and policies, and toxicology. He was an Affiliate Associate Professor in the Center for Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond VA until 2015. He has served on numerous state and federal advisory committees on a variety of topics.

Dr. deFur presently serves as technical advisor to citizen organizations concerning the cleanup of contaminated sites at CERCLA, FUDS, and RCRA sites around the country. His projects include the Housatonic River, MA; the Delaware River; Lower Duwamish River, WA; the Rayonier site in Port Angeles, WA; Portland Harbor, OR and the Spring Valley site in Washington, DC.

Dr. deFur received B.S. and M.A. degrees in Biology from the College of William and Mary, in Virginia, and a Ph.D. in Biology (1980) from the University of Calgary, Alberta. He was a postdoctoral fellow in neurophysiology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Calgary, and an environmental fellow at AAAS in 1989. Dr. deFur has held faculty positions at George Mason University and Southeastern Louisiana University before joining the staff of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in Washington, DC. In 1996, deFur formed an independent private consulting firm, Environmental Stewardship Concepts, LLC, and accepted a part-time position at VCU.

Dr. deFur has extensive experience in human health risk assessment and ecological risk assessment regulations, guidance and policy. He served on the NAS/NRC Risk Characterization Committee that prepared Understanding Risk, on several subsequent study committees and served on the NRC Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology from 1996 to 1999. He is presently serving on the NRC/NAS committee on Uranium Mining in Virginia. He served on a number of scientific reviews of EPA ecological and human health risk assessments, including the Framework for Cumulative Risk Assessment, the assessment for the WTI incinerator in Ohio and EPA’s Ecological Risk Assessment Guidelines. Dr. deFur was a member of each of the three federal advisory committees for EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Program (EDSTAC, EDMVS and EDMVAC). Dr. deFur was chair of the peer review of EPA’s Dioxin Reassessment in 2000.

2016 Curriculum Vitae