Town of Cary

Town of Cary
Town Clerk’s Office
P.O. Box 8005, Cary, NC 27512-8005
Phone No. (919) 319-4508
Fax No. (919) 460-4910
e-mail: Karen.gray@townofcary.org

Please contact the town clerk's office with any questions about this application. The e-mail address is karen.gray@townofcary.org; the phone number is 469-4011. Current Town of Cary employees are not eligible to serve on Town Council appointed boards and commissions.

PLEASE NOTE: This application is a public record under North Carolina law and will be shared with third parties upon request and without notice. If there is any information you do not want released to the public, please do not include it.

Application for Town of Cary Environmental Advisory Board

PLEASE TYPE OR PRINT CLEARLY

Name:	Cupitt	Larry	Thomas
	(Last)	(First)	(Middle)

Address:	104 Steep Bank Drive	Cary	NC	27518
	Street & No.	City	State	Zip

Daytime Tel #:

919-387-7993

Evening Tel #:

919-387-7993

E-Mail Address:

sylvin35116@mypacks.net (for public release)

Place of Employment/ Employer:

Retired from US EPA

Current Position (Title):

Not Applicable: formerly Associate Lab Director

Brief Description of Duties:

Not Applicable: See answer below for experience & expertise.

Answer all of the question below in full

The Board will consist of nine members to serve staggered terms that vary in length up to three years: five will serve as “At-Large Citizens” with the remaining four to serve as “Technical Experts” or “Partners”. Your professional history helps in filling these vacancies. Visit the boards and commissions Web page on the Town’s Web site at http://www.townofcary.org/boards/boards.htm for information regarding the Environmental Advisory Board.

Technical Experts include but may not be limited to the following:

Energy: Electrical and Fuels	Environmental Economics
Energy: Renewable, Alternative Technologies	Environmental Toxicology
Waste Reduction, Recycling, and Waste to Energy	Government Regulations, Compliance, Grants and Incentives.
Water Quality	Transit – Oriented Development
Air Quality and Public Health	Sustainable Design and Standards in the Building Industry (i.e. ENERGY STAR, LEED)
Urban Vegetation/Forestry/Wildlife	Social Change and Environmental Awareness
Industrial Ecology	Creative and Collaborative Problem Solving
Conservation and Natural Resource Management	Action Planning for Sustainable Results

Partners include but may not be limited to the following:

University	NCSU Solar Center
Government	US EPA
Non-profit organizations, networks	Municipal Network for Energy Efficiency Sierra Club, www.coolcities.us/
Utilities	Progress Energy, Burlington Electric, Duke Energy
Private Sector	Cherokee Investments
Associations	Homebuilders’ Association NCLM Energy

The council understands that some citizens interested in serving the Town may be unable to make a three year commitment, especially with a newly established board. Please indicate in order of preference, your ability to commit to the following:

3	Through February 1, 2009
2	2 years
1	3 years

Please indicate for which of the following positions you are applying:

1	At Large Citizen Representative
2	Technical Expert Representative
	Partner Representative

If applying for technical expert or partner, indicate affiliation and list any relevant experience/qualifications. Tell in your own words why you are the best qualified candidate, what you could bring to this particular board, and any other information that might distinguish your application from the other candidates. (You may attach additional documentation to support your position.)

I have spent a lifetime working to make the world a better place, first in the Army and then in support of and with EPA. I have also served Cary in the past, being awarded Cary’s Environmental and Trails Award in 2001. But, now that I have retired from EPA, I have the time to serve Cary -- working to make it better too. My background is diverse -- conducting, leading and managing research in air pollution, human exposure, and public health. (See the attached CV.) But my work has been pragmatic too, working with scientists at the National Weather Service to develop the UV Index now published across the nation. I have also seen the art of politics at work, serving as a Science Advisor to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan as the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 were negotiated. (Indeed, I negotiated the Title IX research provisions in the CAAA on behalf of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee.) Finally, when my laboratory needed someone to spearhead efforts to ensure the ethical integrity of environmental exposure research involving humans (referred to in the Belmont Report as “human subjects”), they turned to me. The report I edited and wrote was described by one of the peer reviewers as the “best written federal document” he had ever read. So, in summary, I bring knowledge, passion, and experience with me to this effort. I can understand and balance complex technical issues to develop and implement practical solutions, weigh highly-charged political concerns to develop practical policies, and ensure that state-of-the-art approaches incorporate appropriate ethical considerations and standards. For all these reasons, I would like to serve on Cary’s Environmental Advisory Board.

List any board or commission on which you are presently serving, or have served on in the past, either in the Town of Cary or elsewhere, noting any relevancy to the Environmental Advisory Board.

None.

If you previously served on a Town board or commission, did you fulfill your term to its completion (NOTE: An appointed term can be for 1, 2 or 3 years)?

Yes

If not, please explain and provide dates of service:

Have you completed the Town’s School of Government class? (Completion of the school of government is not a requirement for service on a board or commission)

Yes

Polo shirt size:

2XL

3XL

How did you become aware of this volunteer opportunity with the Town of Cary? (Please check all that apply):

	Newspaper	X	Town Web page		BUD Newsletter
	BUD TV		Other (please specify)

Citizens appointed to any board or commission are required to read and sign the Ethics and Conflicts of Interest Guidelines for Town Advisory Boards and Commissions. Please visit the Town’s Web site at http://www.townofcary.org/boards/boards.htm to review these guidelines. Your submission of this application indicates that you have read and agree to sign these guidelines in their present form if appointed to serve on this board.

Do you have any personal or business interest(s) that could create a conflict (either real or perceived) if you are appointed to serve?

Yes

If yes, please explain:

I understand the following:

that all of the information on this application is a public record
that if not initially appointed to serve this application will be active through August 30 of the current year
that an updated application is required during the application period of September 1-December 1 to be considered for reappointment or future appointment to this board
that regular attendance by members at board or commission meetings is important and an appointed member may be removed for missing three (3) or more meetings during the calendar year (February through December)

By submission of this application I certify that all of the information contained herein is true to the best of my knowledge. (If returning via U.S. mail, please sign below; your signature is not required if the application is returned as an e-mail attachment.)

Signature _________________________________ Date: ___May 22, 2008______

Biographical Sketch of Dr. Larry Cupitt

Dr. Larry T. Cupitt, has more than three decades of experience in public service and environmental issues. He received his Ph. D. in Physical Chemistry from Rice University in 1972. His doctoral research focused on free radical reactions, like those that control the production of photochemical smog and the environmental fate of many pollutants. After completing his doctorate, Lieutenant Cupitt was commissioned in the Army and served for three years, where he conducted research on chemical laser systems and other advanced weapons. After his tour of duty in the Army, Dr. Cupitt worked in the private sector carrying out environmental research, where he was able to broaden his experiences beyond atmospheric chemistry and to deal with larger, multi-disciplinary environmental issues that required the assembly and coordination of multi-disciplinary teams of chemists, biologists, health scientists, physicists, engineers, and statisticians. In 1979, he joined EPA where he has worked as a research scientist and a research manager (e.g., Division Director and Associate Lab Director).

Dr. Cupitt’s experiences with EPA have been varied and interesting. He has twice won EPA Science and Technology Awards, the first in atmospheric chemistry for identifying seemingly innocuous pollutants that are transformed into hazardous species during the formation of smog, and the second for his role in apportioning human exposure and risk associated with organic pollutants on particulate matter. A few of Dr. Cupitt’s more interesting assignments include:

(1) Serving as a research advisor to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1990 as the Clean Air Act Amendments were being passed. Dr. Cupitt worked directly with the Senate staff during debate and negotiations with the House. While he played a role in all aspects of the Act and other environmental legislation, advising Sen. Moynihan and the Senate staff, Dr. Cupitt leading the Senate staff in its negotiations with the House for Title IX, the research provisions, of the Act;

(2) Developing an Ultraviolet Index for predicting potential exposures to harmful UV-B radiation. Dr. Cupitt and another NERL researcher worked with scientists from the National Weather Service and with staff from EPA Office of Atmospheric Programs to develop a predictive index of anticipated UV levels in major urban areas. NERL sponsored and oversaw the development of the index, and provided the “ground truth” data to provide a firm scientific basis for the index which is now routinely published by the Weather Service; and

(3) Developing one of the first probabilistic exposure and risk models to assess health risks from pollution. The Integrated Air Cancer Project (IACP) was a multi-laboratory, multi-disciplinary study that sought to quantify the potential risk of particle-bound organic pollutants and to attribute the chemicals to their sources of origin. The program linked source apportionment to ambient and indoor measurements of pollutants to the tumor-forming potential (via mouse skin painting) of the collected air pollutants. Dr. Cupitt led a multi-disciplinary team of scientists as Study Design Team Leader and personally developed a micro-environmental model of exposures to estimate the exposure and potential cancer risk from organic chemicals emitted by wood smoke and automobiles. This was one of the first probabilistic exposure and risk models to assess real-world hazards.

(4) Editing Scientific and Ethical Approaches for Observational Exposure Science. In response to some controversy, the National Exposure Research Laboratory asked Dr. Cupitt to edit, and be principal author on a document designed to ensure that EPA’s research met the highest scientific and ethical standards whenever the study involved observing people in order to understand how their everyday activities might bring them into contact with pollutants in their environment. The document was a synopsis of both scientific approaches and review of ethical concerns, focusing on the principles of respect for persons, including autonomy, informed consent and protection of vulnerable individuals; beneficence and non-maleficence; and justice. It dealt with practical issues like privacy, confidentiality, collateral observations, establishing and maintaining an open, informed dialogue between researchers and participants, approaches for communications and how to make sure materials are understood, overseeing results to protect participants, etc. The peer review was positive with one reviewer calling it the “best written federal document” he had ever read.

(5) Impacting Environmental and Human Health. As Division Director and Associate Lab Director, Dr. Cupitt directed EPA’s research on air pollution (its sources, transformation, and distribution in the environment), on ensuring safe drinking water (safe from harmful chemicals and microbes), and human exposure and risk (understanding how people come into contact with pollutants through the air they breathe, the food they eat, the things they touch, and the activities that people do). He worked closely with health scientists, ecologists, and policy-makers to ensure that the research he developed was useful for both assessing environmental and human health risks and for finding practical solutions.