Rosa named to national board

Eugene Rosa '67 (business administration) is serving on the Board on Radioactive Waste Management of the National Academies. Established in 1958, the BRWM is principally concerned with the safe and responsible management of radioactive wastes.

Rosa, is the Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of Natural Resource and Environmental Policy, professor of sociology, affiliated professor of environmental science, and affiliated professor of fine arts at Washington State University. He received a master's degree and Ph.D. in social sciences from Syracuse University and completed postgraduate work in neurobiobehavioral sciences and in energy studies at Stanford University before joining the faculty at WSU in 1978. For more than two decades, his research has focused on environmental topics – particularly energy, technology, and risk issues – with attention to both theoretical and policy concerns. An internationally recognized expert on public responses to nuclear and other risks, he is widely published and has presented lectures and seminars in the U.S. and abroad.

The 16 members of the Board on Radioactive Waste Management meet three times a year in Washington, D.C. The board advises decision makers on all aspects of radioactive waste management and often deals with sensitive issues such as the creation of the nation's first permanent nuclear waste repository in Nevada.

“It's particularly challenging,” says Rosa, “to be in a position where decisions have such high consequences. But it's also a tremendous opportunity to be directly involved in finding better solutions to these important policy and national management issues.”