James K. Hammitt

In November 2003 James K. Hammitt was appointed as Director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA).

Hammitt holds degrees in Applied Mathematics (A.B., Sc.M.) and Public Policy (M.P.P., Ph.D.) from Harvard University. "He was previously Senior Mathematician at the RAND Corporation and a faculty member at the RAND Graduate School of Policy Studies", his biographical note states.

According to a press release announcing his appointment, "Hammitt's research and teaching concern the development of decision analysis, benefit-cost analysis, game theory, and other quantitative methods and their application to health and environmental policy in the United States and internationally. His research includes work on global climate change, the risks of pesticides and other contaminants in food, and the cost-effectiveness of air pollution control strategies. He also studies ways to measure the value of reducing health risks, including monetary and health-adjusted-life-year metrics."

"Hammitt is co-founder and co-director with John Evans, senior lecturer on environmental science, of the graduate program on Environmental Science and Risk Management. He is director of the continuing education course "Analyzing Regulations: Health, Safety and the Environment. He is a Faculty Fellow of the Environmental Economics Program at Harvard University, a Fellow of the Kennedy School of Government's Center for Business and Government and a member of the Faculty Steering Committee for its Regulatory Policy Program. He is a member of the Harvard University Center for the Environment and its China Project, the Harvard University Committee on Advanced Degrees in Health Policy, a member of the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee and the Advisory Council on Clear Air Compliance Analysis of the EPA Science Advisory Board, and of the Winthrop House Senior Common Room at Harvard College," the release states.

"He recently concluded service as a member of the American Statistical Association Committee on Energy Statistics (Advisory Committee to the U.S. Energy Information Administration) and the National Academy of Sciences panel on 'Implications of Dioxin in the Food Supply',"the release stated.