JOAN DAISEY, ONE OF AMERICA'S LEADING INDOOR AIR QUALITY EXPERTS

A physical chemist by training, Daisey was at Berkeley Lab for 14 years and headed the Environmental Energy Technologies (EET) Division's Indoor Environment Department, with a 60-person staff and a budget of more than $6 million per year. She was also Chair of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Science Advisory Board, an influential national board that helps guide the direction of EPA research.

Born in New York City, Daisey received her B.A. in chemistry from Georgian Court College in New Jersey in 1962 and her Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Seton Hall University in 1970. With more than 25 years of research experience, Daisey's more than 100 publications focused on organic pollutants and indoor and outdoor air particles. Her work in this field included studies of the physical and chemical nature, sources, transport, and fate of pollutants, as well as exposure assessment and exposure pathways.

"Joan's contributions -- as an outstanding researcher within the Department, as an advocate for linking indoor and outdoor air quality research, and as a national leader on environmental research -- were magnificent," said Mark Levine, Division Director of EET. "Equally, we will miss her joy in doing research, her impatience with impediments to progress, her sense of humor, and her acceptance of her co-workers as friends and part of her extended family."

Added Charles V. Shank, Director of Berkeley Lab, "Joan has had an enormous impact here, and we will miss her very much."

While a researcher at New York University Medical Center's Department of Environmental Medicine (1975-1986), Daisey was a principal investigator in numerous multi-institutional field projects, including the Airborne Toxic Elements and Organic Substances Study. As a senior scientist at Berkeley Lab, she was a principal investigator for many research projects on environmental tobacco smoke, ventilation, infiltration and indoor air quality, the health effects of volatile organic compounds and particles, and on the soil-to-gas transport of volatile organic compounds into buildings as an exposure pathway. She had a strong interest in the continuum between indoor and outdoor air quality and helped to build a bridge between the respective research communities.

Daisey took a lively interest in guiding the development of new areas of research. She was active in the public arena, where she applied her scientific expertise and knowledge of toxic chemicals to the problem of reducing their exposures to human beings. She was a member of the EPA's Science Advisory Board since 1987 and was chair of the Board since 1998. Her work with the Board included participation in several committees, including the Human Exposure and Health Subcommittee of Advisory Board's Integrated Risk Project. She was very active in scientific societies including service as President of the International Society of Exposure Analyses in 1995 and 1996; Directors' Environmental and Occupational/Public Health Standards Steering Group since 1993; the Board of Scientific Counselors of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (1988-90); and the National Research Council's Committee on Advances in Assessing Human Exposure to Airborne Pollutants from 1987 to 1989. In 1987 and 1988, Daisey worked on the Peer Review Committees that developed emergency plans for the sampling and analysis of data from the Love Canal area of New York State.

"She will be remembered as an outstanding, creative, and energetic scientist with a positive outlook and a sense of humor," said fellow scientist Bill Fisk. "She was unselfish and treated her colleagues with warmth and respect. She particularly enjoyed working with promising young scientists and guided several students in research for their Ph.D. dissertations."

Daisey, a resident of Walnut Creek, California, is survived by her husband of 36 years, Tom, son Christian, two sisters and a brother. Funeral services are pending.

Additional Information:

• Berkeley Lab Indoor Environment Program