Toxicology at the Food and Drug Administration: new century, new challenges.

Dr. Schwetz is the Acting Deputy Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He was Director of FDA National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson, AR, from 1993 to 1999. A diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology, Dr. Schwetz was acting Director of the Environmental Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in Research Triangle Park, NC, before coming to the FDA in 1993. He was also Associate Director of the National Toxicology program there. He had been Chief of the Institute Systems Toxicity Branch since 1982. Dr. Schwetz currently serves as Adjunct Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology/Division of Interdisciplinary Toxicology, at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He was editor of Fundamental and Applied Toxicology from 1986 to 1992, and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Environmental Health Perspectives and Critical Reviews in Toxicology. Dr. Schwetz is an invited member of the Canada Health Protection Branch Science Advisory Board, and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine. He is a member of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) and the National Capitol Area Chapter, SOT; the American Veterinary Medical Association; National Society of Phi Zeta, Honor Society of Veterinary Medicine; Teratology Society; Behavioral Teratology Society; and the Reproductive Toxicology Specialty Section of the SOT. He is past president of the Reproductive Toxicology Specialty Section of the SOT and of the North Carolina and the South Central Chapters of the SOT. In addition to numerous other professional awards during his career, Dr. Schwetz received the U.S. Government 1998 Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award.