Kristen Kulinowski to lead Chemical Safety Board

Kristen Kulinowski will head the Chemical Safety Board as its “interim executive authority” following the resignation of chair Vanessa Allen Sutherland, according to a CSB statement. The board will now be down to three members, two short of the number set by law. “I am committed to ensuring that the CSB’s current investigations are completed in a timely and efficient manner and that the lessons learned are available to industry, workers, and members of the public,” Kulinowski said. The board currently has 10 investigations under way. A longtime American Chemical Society member, Kulinowski was a research staff member in the Science & Technology Policy Institute of the Institute for Defense Analyses before being appointed to CSB in 2015. Earlier, she spent 13 years at Rice University as executive director of the Center for Biological & Environmental Nanotechnology and director of the International Council on Nanotechnology. At CSB, she has focused her outreach efforts on laboratory safety and safe practices for welding and other “hot work” in the chemical industry. The U.S. president nominates and the Senate confirms CSB members and the chair. President Donald J. Trump has twice proposed eliminating CSB.