Daniel A. Vallero

Daniel A. Vallero is an American environmental author and scientist. He was born in East St. Louis, Illinois and grew up in Collinsville, Illinois. He received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in city and regional planning from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. He also earned a masters in civil and environmental engineering (environmental health sciences) from the University of Kansas and a PhD in civil and environmental engineering from Duke University with a thesis on "“Dicarboximide Fungicide Flux to the Lower Troposphere from an Aquic Hapludult Soil”
Career.
Vallero is recognized internationally for advancing the state of environmental science and engineering, as an author, educator, engineer and scientific researcher. He has appeared on news and other shows, recently discussing plastic recycling on NBC's Today Show (http://www.today.com/video/today/51620316) and on MSNBC, and current state of ethics in research at universities. He began his professional career in the Kansas City regional office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1976 and has worked in numerous other scientific venues since then. He directed the Science, Technology and Human Values Program at Duke University from 1997 to 2005. Beginning in 2005, he has been adjunct Professor of Engineering Ethics at Duke University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the Trinity School of Arts and Sciences. He held appointments also at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, North Carolina Central University, and as science staff member on Energy and Power Subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives.
In his books and other writings, Vallero has taken the systems view of science and engineering as they related to life at every scale from molecular to planetary. As such he has bridged biomedical engineering with environmental engineering. He stresses the need to incorporate the social sciences into every engineering and design project. As a leader in engineering ethics, he has served the National Academy of Engineering as a member of the Online Ethics Committee and the Executive Board of the National Institute of Engineering Ethics. Vallero has also advised Sigma Xi, universities and other institutions on science and research ethics and the responsible conduct of research (RCR).
Vallero is editor for the Institution of Chemical Engineers' journal, "Process Safety and Environmental Protection", as well as the MDPI journal, "Sustainability". He is also the environmental engineering subject editor of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology and the "McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science & Technology".
Works.
Vallero is a pioneer of green engineering and the application of life cycle analysis to engineering design. He was among the first to question the sustainability and ethics of using corn as a source of ethanol fuel. His reasoning was that current farming practice's dependence on fossil fuels needed to grow (including fertilizer and pesticides), harvest and ferment the corn is highly inefficient thermodynamically. The use of corn for fuel is especially problematic, since only the seed are used, not to mention the misuse of an important part of the global food supply. Vallero argued that other crops are much more sustainable, especially those that make use of the whole plant, including cellulosic material, like switchgrass (Panicum virgatum).
In the book, "DUST: The inside Story of its Role in the September 11th Aftermath," the late American scientist Paul Lioy credited Vallero with leading the way to sampling of hazardous air pollutants in and around Ground Zero following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Lioy collaborated with Vallero in establishing a protocol for characterizing exposure in risk assessments following such emergencies. Lioy and Vallero coined the term “5 R’s” to delineate how exposure assessment varies during the five stages following a disaster: 1. Rescue; 2. Recovery; 3. Reentry; 4. Restoration; and 5. Rehabitation.
With architect, Chris Brasier, Vallero coined the term "synthovation," as a new design process for green engineering and green architecture. A combination of synthesis and innovation, sustainable design does not consider innovation to be an interruption (feedback loop) to the design process as in traditional "concept to completion" design. Rather, innovations are to be expected and integrated. Differing from the traditional step-wise process, synthovation is a spiral, dynamic, and continuously moving process toward completion of the design and throughout the life of the project, including end-of life recycling and design for disassembly, a component of design for environment (DfE), with innovations added along the way that will increase the sustainability of the project over its entire life cycle.
In her book, "Hormone Deception", Lindsey Berkson credits Vallero as among the first to apply exposure science to endocrine disruptors.