ASTM International Committee E47 on Biological Effects and Environmental Fate has named Larry Kapustka, associate and senior ecotoxicologist at Golder Associates Ltd. in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, as its new chair.  The committee consists of approximately 200 members responsible for more than 80 standards published in the Annual Book of ASTM Standards.

Kapustka, who joined ASTM International in 1991, is active in several E47 subcommittees and also serves on Committees E50 on Environmental Assessment, Risk Management and Corrective Action and E56 on Nanotechnology.  He received a service award for his three-year term on the ASTM Committee on Technical Committee Operations (COTCO). 

A graduate of the University of Oklahoma where he received his Ph.D. in botany, Kapustka has been with Golder Associates Ltd. since 2005.  Before joining Golder, he was president  and senior ecotoxicologist at ecological planning and toxicology inc. in Covallis, Ore.  He also held positions at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and the University of Wisconsin-Superior. 

Kapustka's work focuses on the use of spatially-explicit risk assessments, integrating environmental assessment practices with environmental management decision processes, and advancing the emerging methods in the field of ecological valuation.  He holds a B.S.Ed.  in biology and an M.S. in botany, both from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Outside of ASTM International, Kapustka is a member of the Ecological Society of America, where he is a certified senior ecologist, the International Association of Landscape Ecology, the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and the Society for Risk Analysis.

Release #7934