Academic Credentials
  • Sc.D., Environmental Health, Harvard University, 1994
  • M.S., Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, 1991
  • B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1989
Professional Honors
  • Outstanding Practitioner Award from the Society for Risk Analysis, 2018, recognizing a scientist with an outstanding risk assessment practice.
  • Chauncey Starr Award from the Society for Risk Analysis, 2001, recognizing a scientist under 40 years of age who has made significant contributions to risk analysis
  • Outstanding Service Award, Society for Risk Analysis, 2009
  • Leslie Silverman Scholarship, Harvard University, 1991
  • Walter P. Murphy University Fellowship, Northwestern University, 1989-1990

Rick Reiss, Sc.D., is a group vice president and principal scientist at Exponent specializing in human health risk assessment, pesticide regulatory consulting, and chemical exposure analysis. With over 30 years of experience, he helps chemical manufacturers, pesticide registrants, food companies, and legal teams navigate complex regulatory challenges and litigation matters involving pesticides, industrial chemicals, and consumer product ingredients.

Dr. Reiss has conducted human health risk assessments, advanced data analyses, probabilistic exposure modeling, and environmental fate and transport modeling for a wide range of environmental agents, including pesticides, industrial chemicals, and chemicals used in consumer products. He is actively engaged in the development and application of quantitative methods in risk assessment.

Dr. Reiss is a past president and current fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA), the leading international scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of risk analysis. He has published broadly in the peer-reviewed literature in the areas of human and ecological risk assessment, exposure assessment, dose-response analysis, and epidemiology, and he served as managing editor of Risk Analysis: An International Journal, the field's premier scholarly journal, from 2001 through mid-2008. He received the 2001 Chauncey Starr Award (early career) and the 2018 Outstanding Practitioner Award from SRA.

Chemical Exposure and Health Risk Assessment

Dr. Reiss is an environmental health scientist with extensive expertise in human health risk assessment, exposure assessment, toxicology, environmental chemistry and fate, mathematical modeling, and applied statistics. He provides scientific consulting on complex issues arising under numerous environmental statutes (FIFRA, TSCA, Clean Air Act) and has deep experience in both chemical risk assessment and air quality analysis.

Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling

Dr. Reiss leads the development of physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models and has contributed to the development of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) to evaluate species differences in chemical toxicity and mode of action (MOA) analysis. He also has substantial expertise in dose-response modeling and extensive experience with multiple dose-response software platforms.

PFAS Risk Assessment and Supply Chain Analysis

Dr. Reiss leads projects to evaluate the risk of products that contain PFAS, including exposure and toxicological analysis. Dr. Reiss performs exposure and risk assessments for products that contain PFAS, including estimation of exposure from novel pathways and consideration of differential toxicity of PFAS chemicals. He also leads projects that determine the source of PFAS in products from supply chain analysis, including designing testing programs.

Pesticide Volatilization and Drift

A particular area of specialization for Dr. Reiss is the evaluation of health risks associated with pesticide volatilization and spray drift. He is the developer of the Probabilistic Exposure and Risk Assessment Model for FUMigants (PERFUM), an air dispersion model designed to evaluate bystander inhalation exposure following fumigant applications. PERFUM is widely used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other public agencies to assess bystander risks from pesticide volatilization. Dr. Reiss also performs risk assessments for pesticide spray drift, including serving as an expert witness for cases involving alleged exposures from spray drift.

Dose-Response Modeling

Dr. Reiss has performed dose-response modeling for numerous chemical species, including the use of U.S. EPA BMDS and European Union PROAST software. He has applied benchmark dose (BMD) analysis to refine the point-of-departure in regulatory risk assessments.