Pronouns: he/him/his
Dr. Lehmler is a Professor at the College of Public Health and has served as the EHSRC Director since 2020. Prior to that time, he was the EHSRC Deputy Director. Dr. Lehmler is an experienced environmental health scientist and highly qualified research grant administrator.
In addition to his role as EHSRC Director, Dr. Lehmler is among the leadership team of the Exposure Science Facility and serves as the director of the Career Enhancement Program. He leads a joint seminar series that regularly brings together faculty, staff, and students of the EHSRC and the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Human Toxicology. Additionally, he oversees the activities of the Water Quality thematic area together with Dr. David Cwiertny.
His NIEHS-funded research employs novel animal models, including germ-free mice and transgenic animals, to characterize how the metabolism of chemical hazards, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), affects neurotoxic outcomes across the lifespan. These studies bring together investigators from the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Core Center, the Center for Exposures, Diseases, Genomics, and Environment (EDGE) at the University of Washington, and the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (SWEHSC) at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Lehmler also serves as Deputy Director of the Iowa Superfund Research Program under the direction of Dr. Keri Hornbuckle. Under this program, Dr. Lehmler leads a Research Project investigating the neurotoxicity of inhaled PCBs in adolescents. This Research Project brings together several EHSRC researchers, including Hanna Stevens and Jonathan Doorn, to study how adolescent exposure to airborne PCBs is mechanistically linked to altered neurodevelopmental outcomes through mitochondrial dysfunction in astrocytes. Dr. Lehmler also leads the Synthesis Core of the Iowa Superfund Research Program and is a member of the leadership team of the Analytical Core.