Scott Harris

Scott Harris, Ph.D., MSPH was appointed to our Scientific Advisory Board on August 1, 2020. Dr. Harris is the Associate Director of EHS Services in the Austin, TX office of GDS Associates and an adjunct faculty at University of Texas at San Antonio, University of Utah and UNC-Chapel Hill. His experience spans 30 years of EHS management and Type 1 disaster management across general industry, federal and state government, consulting and university instruction.

Dr. Harris received his PhD in Environmental Science, with a specialization in Disaster and Emergency Management, from Oklahoma State University and holds degrees in Geology and Public Health from Western Kentucky University. He is recognized as a national expert in preparedness and response management and is a sought-after speaker and writer on workplace risk management and disaster preparedness and response.

A former U.S. EPA Federal On-Scene Coordinator, Dr. Harris held key roles in nationally significant response efforts including Space Shuttle Columbia, the Macdona, TX chlorine derailment (largest chlorine transportation release in U.S. history), Hurricane Katrina NOLA water search and rescue and Murphy Oil. In 2010, he served as a Planning Specialist embedded with the U.S. Coast Guard preparing the Florida Keys for oil impact from BP Deepwater Horizon and later as the Planning Section Chief for the Enbridge Energy Pipeline release near Marshal, Michigan. As Deputy Incident Commander, he supported the USDA Green Team for their 2015 Hi-Path Avian Influenza response in Iowa. He is currently on assignment to the FAA advising them on national COVID-19 pandemic mitigation and response measures.

Martin Wiedmann, Ph.D. was appointed to our Scientific Advisory Board on December 1 , 2020. Dr. Martin received a veterinary degree and a doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, and a Ph.D. in Food Science from Cornell, where he currently is the Gellert Family Professor of Food Safety. His research interests focus on farm-to-table microbial food quality and food safety and the application of molecular tools and quantitative and modelling approaches to study the transmission of foodborne pathogens and spoilage organisms, with a particular interest in Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes. His team has published > 350 peer reviewed publications, which have been cited >15,000 times.

Dr. Martin has served as major advisor for 36 Ph.D. students (24 completed) as well as 22 MS and MPS (20 completed). His former students are employed in industry, government, and academia across the world, with many in leadership positions. He and his team are also regularly asked to help industry across the world with a range of microbial food safety and quality challenges.

Dr. Martin is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), and the International Academy of Food Science and Technology. He received the Young Scholars award from the American Dairy Science Association in 2002, the Samuel Cate Prescott Award from Institute of Food Technologists’ in 2003, the International Life Science Institute North America Future Leaders Award in 2004, and the American Meat Institute Foundation Scientific Achievement Award in 2011.