Jonathan D. Edwards became Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Radiation Protection Division in December of 2008. As Division Director, he is responsible for several programs including EPA’s radiological emergency response program, environmental oversight of the U.S. Department of Energy’s deep geological repository known as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico; scientific and technical radiation risk assessments; and other radiation protection activities and programs.

Mr. Edwards graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1985, completed 2 y of post-graduate nuclear engineering instruction and training, and served on the fast attack submarine USS SPADEFISH (SSN-668) as Main Propulsion Assistant and Assistant Engineer.

Upon leaving the Navy in 1993, Mr. Edwards began work with the EPA as a health physicist in the radiation program, going on to work with the Office of Science Policy in the EPA Office of Research and Development. In early 2003, at about the time of the creation of the U.S .Department of Homeland Security, then-EPA Administrator Christy Todd Whitman approved his reassignment to Deputy Director of EPA’s Office of Homeland Security (OHS), a new policy office formed to advise the EPA Administrator on homeland security issues. Mr. Edwards served a number of years with EPA’s OHS, garnering wide respect for his agency-wide leadership on initial EPA homeland security policies and strategies. He served with OHS until his current assignment as Director, Radiation Protection Division.