DEQ-CFW_00074871

6/24/2015 Meet EPA Chemist Mark Strynar, Ph.D. I EPA Science Matters Newsletter I US EPA
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Meet EPA Chemist Mark Strynar, Ph.D.
EPA Chemist Mark Strynar, Ph.D., in the
lab.
Supporting Risk Assessments to Protect Public
Health
Dr. Mark Strynar is a Physical Scientist in EPA's Office of Research and
Development. His research interests include developing methods to measure and
analyze the movement and fate of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) and other
xenobiotic compounds (chemicals found in organisms that are not normally
expected to be present) in biological and environmental media.
When not at work, he enjoys spending time with his family and volunteering at his
local church and various community programs. He is also an avid hunter,
woodworker and welder who spends countless hours in his workshop creating
furniture, contraptions, sawdust, and metal filings.
How does your science matter.?
For the past eight years or so, I've focused on perfluorinated compounds (PFCs).
PFCs are chemical compounds used to make products resistant to stains, water, or
heat. Most people would recognize them as the compounds that keep food from
sticking to pans or stains from ruining carpet.
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DEQ-CFW 00074871

6/24/2015 Meet EPA Chemist Mark Strynar, Ph.D. I EPA Science Matters Newsletter I US EPA
Unfortunately, the same properties that make PFCs useful in kitchenware and
fabric also make them highly resistant to degradation, which means they stay in
our environment for a long time after we are done using them. We have found that
PFCs are also widely dispersed in human beings.
My job is trying to figure out the different ways that PFCs get into your body.
Each avenue of exposure: water, fish, air, food, house dust, etc., requires a
different way ("analytical method") for us to measure for PFCs and other
chemicals of interest.
My research supports human risk assessment studies. It matters because if PFC
exposure levels are too high we can help people take action. For example, in
Decatur, Alabama, we found that levels of PFCs were too high in water and we
were able to put people on alternate sources of drinking water. I can see an
immediate impact from the work I'm doing to protect people's health.
If you could have dinner with any scientist, past or
present, who would it be and what would you like
to ask them about?
I would say Louis Pasteur, who was one of the first to do a lot of microbial work
and discover that the root causes of many diseases are biologically based in
microrganisms. I would like to ask him what made him begin to suspect that
microbes are the root cause of diseases.
When did you first know you wanted to pursue
science as a career?
I started college studying finance but it wasn't until my second semester
sophomore year that I officially chose a major. I realized that I couldn't sit behind
a desk for the rest of my life crunching numbers on spreadsheets.
I had always been an outdoorsman and interested in the environment. I decided to
find a way to incorporate that into my career. I should probably mention that at
the time, we used to register for classes by standing in a line. There was a very
short line for the Natural Resource Sciences so that was a nice bonus!
Tell us about your background.
I received my Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Rhode Island
where I studied Natural Resource Sciences with a focus in Soil Science. I went to
Texas A&M University for my Masters Degree and The Pennsylvania State
University for my Ph.D., which were both in soil science. My dissertation was on
figuring out how xenobiotic compounds, manmade chemicals, interact with humic
material in soil.
How did you get started at EPA?
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