Herman Gibb

Dr. Herman Gibb is a Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health.

Dr. Gibb has been President and Managing Partner of Gibb & O’Leary Epidemiology Consulting since August 2022. Prior to August 2022, Dr. Gibb was President of Gibb Epidemiology Consulting.  Dr. Gibb has over 40 years of experience in health risk assessment and has provided expert consultation to a variety of international and national clients. 

Dr. Gibb chaired the World Health Organization’s Foodborne Epidemiology Reference Group’s (FERG) Chemical Task Force (2007-2015).  He was a member of the Science Advisory Committee of the United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries at Washington State University (2007-2016) and a member of the Presidential Advisory Board on Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Health at the Ana G. Mendez University System in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2001-2016). 

Dr. Gibb has served on three committees of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine – one on Gulf War Illness (2014-2016), one on potential health effects of Surface Mining in Appalachia (2017-2018), and one on research needs for Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) (2020). 

He was a peer reviewer of the Academies’ 2017 report on the Assessment of the Department of Veterans Affairs Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry, the Academies’ 2022 Reassessment of the Department of Veterans Affairs Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry, and the Academies’ 2022 Potential Impacts of Gold Mining in Virginia.

He is a Professorial Lecturer in Environmental and Occupational Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health of the George Washington University and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. 

Dr. Gibb has served as an expert witness before federal and state courts and before an international tribunal on a variety of health risk assessment topics and has testified before two U.S. Senate committees about hexavalent chromium.  He was interviewed on NBC Nightly News regarding the health effects of hexavalent chromium.

Before starting Gibb Epidemiology Consulting in April 2014, Dr. Gibb was President of Tetra Tech Sciences, an operating unit of the Tetra Tech Corporation specializing in health risk assessment.  At Tetra Tech Sciences, Dr. Gibb managed contracts providing public health support to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Health Canada, and the World Health Organization. He was an invited peer reviewer of health risk assessment documents prepared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Health Canada, and the World Health Organization. 

Dr. Gibb received the 2011 Practitioner of the Year from the Society of Risk Analysis. 

Prior to Tetra Tech Sciences, Dr. Gibb served in the capacities of Associate Director for Health and Assistant Center Director at the National Center for Environmental Assessment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  Among his duties as Associate Director, Dr. Gibb oversaw the Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) and directed EPA’s assessment of inhalation exposures and potential health risks that resulted from the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers.  He was the Project Officer for EPA’s cooperative agreements with the World Health Organization.  He is an author of EPA’s Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment and EPA’s Risk Assessment Principles and Practices.  He was the recipient of the EPA’s Scientific and Technological Achievement Award for his study of lung cancer mortality and clinical irritation among chromate production workers and the recipient of the EPA’s Gold Medal for Exceptional Service for his work on the drinking water standard for arsenic.  His study of chromate production workers utilized one of the most extensive industrial hygiene databases ever assembled.  The study formed the basis of OSHA’s 2006 Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) on Hexavalent Chromium.  He is an author of the World Health Organization’s Environmental Health Criteria Document on Principles for the Assessment of Risks to Human Health from Exposure to Chemicals and the World Health Organization’s Environmental Health Criteria Document on Arsenic and Arsenic Compounds. 

Dr. Gibb served as Secretary-Treasurer of the Ethical, Legal, Forensics, and Societal Issues Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology (2018-2020). In 2019, he received the University of Pittsburgh Public Health Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of “contributions to environmental and occupational risk assessment.”