Paul Locke

Paul Locke, an environmental health scientist and attorney, is an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Division of Toxicology. He holds an MPH from Yale University School of Medicine, a DrPH from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and a JD degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law. Prior to joining the Department of Environmental Health, he was the Deputy Director of the Pew Environmental Health Commission. Among other things, the Commission spearheaded efforts to establish a nationwide health tracking system at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Locke’s research and practice focus on how decision makers use environmental health science and toxicology in regulation and policy-making and how environmental health sciences influence the policy-making process.  His areas of study include radiation protection and alternatives to animal testing in biomedical research, with particular emphasis on regulatory toxicology.  He is an expert in the growing field of humane sciences law and policy, an interdisciplinary area of research focusing on how policy and legal institutions influence the development implementation, use, validation and regulatory acceptance of alternatives to animals in biomedical research.  More particularly, Dr. Locke is studying what policy and legal changes (if any) will be necessary to implement the National Academy of Sciences recent report Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and A Strategy.   

Dr. Locke is co-director of the Johns Hopkins certificate program in Humane Science and Toxicology and a member of the faculty of Hopkins’ Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing.  He co-teaches a course on animals in research that focuses on alternatives.  Dr. Locke is a member of the DC Bar’s Animal Law Committee and the editorial board of Risk Analysis:  An International Journal.  He has served on five National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council expert committees, including the Committee to Update the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.  Dr. Locke is admitted to practice law before the bars of the states of New York and New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and the United States Supreme Court.