George Van Houtven appointed to EPA Science Advisory Board’s Environmental Economics Advisory Committee

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC— George Van Houtven, Ph.D., senior environmental economist at RTI International, has been appointed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board's Environmental Economics Advisory Committee. 

The committee provides expert advice to the EPA regarding scientific and technical aspects of environmental issues. The committee also offers professional guidance that supports the EPA's ability to protect public health and safeguard the environment.

Van Houtven, an expert in environmental economics, will serve a two-year term. He has more than 20 years of experience managing and conducting applied policy research, primarily for the EPA and other federal agencies.

Van Houtven is the program director for Watershed Sciences and Ecosystem Services. He specializes in economic valuation of ecological and human health benefits, and markets for ecosystem services. He has coordinated several interdisciplinary studies that link environmental and economic models to support cost-benefit analyses of environmental regulations.

Van Houtven received his doctorate in economics from the University of Maryland, and his bachelor's degree in economics from Johns Hopkins University.