A Purdue University food safety scientist, Charles R. Santerre, has been named a senior policy adviser in the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, where his assignments are expected to include helping coordinate the administration’s work on agricultural biotechnology.
Santerre also is expected to drive the OSTP’s scientific work on recommendations from President Trump’s Rural Prosperity Task Force for reducing regulatory barriers and promote technological innovation in agriculture and rural communities.
OSTP is the arm of the White House that sees that the president’s science and technology priorities are carried out and coordinated across departments and agencies.
The administration is continuing an extensive review of the government’s regulatory process for biotechnology that was started by OSTP during the Obama administration.
“I am honored to serve in this role, as I believe that using scientific evidence to inform policy can be a way for scientists to engage and best serve the public,” Santerre said.
Santerre, a professor of food toxicology, served from 2014 to 2017 on the Food and Drug Administration’s Food Advisory Committee, one of several advisory roles in which he has served.
In 2014-15, he was a Jefferson Science Fellow for the National Academy of Sciences and worked with the Department of State in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research as an intelligence analyst.
In 2010-11, he served as an Science & Policy Technology Fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. He developed and helped implement a vision for identifying, measuring, and responding to emerging chemical contaminants in meat and poultry products.
He also has served or is serving as a food safety expert for the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Life Sciences Institute of North Americ,a and the International Food Information Council.
