The Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) inducted Eula Bingham, Steve Rayner and Martin Weitzman to the Pantheon of Risk Analysis. The Pantheon, established in 2008, recognizes luminaries and visionaries in risk analysis and serves to illustrate how the field contributes to the advancement of knowledge and public good.
Eula Bingham was a champion of setting stringent standards to protect worker health and safety. She was an Emerita professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, a toxicologist and head of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under President Jimmy Carter. During her time at the University of Cincinnati, Bingham contributed more than 100 peer-reviewed articles on occupational and environmental respiratory hazards, chemical carcinogenesis, and occupational and environmental health policy. As Director of OSHA, she revised occupational lead exposure standard and was a pioneer of regulations on workers’ “right to know” about workplace hazards. SRA is giving this recognition posthumously, following Bingham’s death on June 13, 2020, at the age of 90.
Steve Rayner contributed seminal work advancing the field’s understanding of cultural approaches to risk analysis. He was the Founding Director of the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society at Oxford University and served on a number of U.S., UK and international bodies addressing science, technology and the environment – including the UK’s Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Royal Society’s Working Group on Climate Geoengineering.
Rayner’s research was primarily focused on climate policy, particularly adaptation and geoengineering as ways to mitigate the effects of climate change. He was recognized for his contribution to the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. His later work focused on the problematic issues in the relationship between science and governance, as well as the governance of science. SRA is giving this recognition posthumously, following Rayner’s death on January 17, 2020, at the age of 66.
Martin Weitzman was a research professor of economics at Harvard University and was among the most influential economists in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc. His research covered a wide range of topics, including environmental and natural resource economics, green accounting, economics of biodiversity, economics of environmental regulation, economics of climate change, discounting, comparative economic systems, economics of profit sharing, economic planning and microfoundations of macro theory. His most recent research focused on environmental economics, specifically climate change and the economics of catastrophes. SRA is giving this recognition posthumously, following Weitzman’s death on August 27, 2019, at the age of 77.
