Ronald Hines

Dr. Hines is Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1980. Following his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, he became Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor at the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases and the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. In 1989, Dr. Hines was recruited to the Wayne State University School of Medicine as Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Pediatrics Associate and in 1995, was promoted to Professor of Pharmacology. In 1999, he assumed a position as Professor of Pediatrics and Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Medical College of Wisconsin where he also served as Associate Director of the Children’s Research Institute of the Children’s Hospital and Health Systems and Co-Section Chief of Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacogenetics, and Teratology in the Department of Pediatrics. In addition, Dr. Hines was Adjunct Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and served as Co-Director for a collaborative NIEHS Environmental Health Sciences Center between the two institutions. In 2012, Dr. Hines accepted the position of Associate Director for Health at the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) in the Office of Research and Development of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In this position, he managed the three NHEERL health divisions and their diverse research portfolio, as well as the Research Core Unit. He retired from the US Environmental Protection Agency in 2020.

Throughout his academic career, Dr. Hines’ research was supported by various organizations, including state health departments, private foundations, industry contracts and the National Institutes of Health. He is a member of the Society of Toxicology where he was elected to the Presidential Chain, serving as President from May 1, 2019 through April 30, 2021. He has served on numerous Federal and State science advisory panels and as an Associate Editor or Editorial Board Member for nine peer-reviewed journals. He currently is a member of the Drug Metabolism and Disposition and Current Topics in Toxicology Editorial Boards. During his career, Dr. Hines approached research questions using a transdisciplinary strategy, assembling and leading research teams with expertise spanning from molecular biology and analytical chemistry to clinical cohort studies. Dr. Hines has over 150 publications focused on mechanisms whereby exposures to environmental toxicants or drugs alter gene regulation and the genetic/epigenetic basis for interindividual differences in response to exposures. Over the last 13 years of his academic career, his research turned to elucidating how and through what mechanisms the enzymes involved in toxicant and drug disposition change during early life stages and the interaction of genetic/epigenetic variation with this normal developmental process. The impact of this body of work has resulted in an h-index of 52 and numerous invitations to present his research at both national and international meetings.