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Paul D. Boehm, Ph.D.

Group Vice President & Principal Scientist

Environmental Sciences

Professional Profile


Dr. Paul D. Boehm has overall responsibility for Exponent’s Environmental business. During 34 years of consulting he has advised industrial, legal, and government clients on scientific matters involving many aspects of environmental, analytical, and forensic chemistry as well as petroleum chemistry and natural gas geochemistry. He is a leading practitioner and a recognized expert in the fields of environmental (chemical) forensics as applied to site and sediment investigations; and natural resource damage assessments (NRDA) for oil spills and contaminated sites. Many of his projects involve aspects of historical reconstruction of chemical releases; chemical fingerprinting; divisibility and apportionment; and chemical exposure and injury assessment. His extensive knowledge of the strategic application and practice of environmental forensics has been applied to numerous cases involving complex environmental liability and litigation matters at petroleum operations and manufactured gas plant (MGP) sites.

Dr. Boehm is well-known internationally in the field of marine pollution and oil spill scientific assessment with specific emphases on environmental aspects of contaminated sediments, spill response, and NRDA. He has published extensively on the fate and effects of many major oil spills in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East (e.g., Amoco Cadiz; Haven; Ixtoc 1; Exxon Valdez; Arabian Gulf War spill; Deepwater Horizon). His work in the NRDA arena goes well beyond oils spills as he has been engaged in numerous cases at CERCLA and State sites, where he has provided expert technical support on exposure and injury assessment; the determination of baseline or background; divisibility and apportionment of contamination, including the applicability of CERCLA’s "petroleum exclusion."

His work as an analytical, environmental, and geo-chemist has involved petroleum hydrocarbons – crude oils, refined fuels, and fuel additives - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), other chlorinated organics, solvents (TCE, PCE), and metals. As a natural gas and petroleum chemist and geochemist, he has also investigated geochemical aspects relating to the migration of natural gas from storage fields and other gas operations.

Dr. Boehm’s work has focused extensively on oil refineries, fuel terminals, oil pipelines, and offshore platforms; manufactured gas plants (MGP); land and sediment Superfund sites; and pulp and paper mills. He has published extensively on forensic approaches to investigations at these facilities.

Dr. Boehm has been appointed to serve on several national panels on environmental/ marine pollution and has served on several National Research Council panels.

  • Ph.D., Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, 1977
  • M.S., Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, 1973
  • B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Rochester, 1970