SolarBee appoints H. Kenneth Hudnell, PhD, Vice President and Director of Science

Dec-1-07

H. Kenneth Hudnell, PhD, has been appointed Vice President and Director of Science for SolarBee Inc. As science director, Dr. Hudnell will lead the research effort for finding solutions to water quality problems in fresh water, wastewater and potable water reservoirs.  His research will concentrate on advancing the scientific understanding and control of algal blooms and toxins in fresh and estuarine waters, the causes of and methods to reduce disinfection byproducts in potable water, and improved processes for removing effluent contaminants from wastewater. Dr. Hudnell also is an adjunct professor in the University of North Carolina’s Institute for the Environment, through which he will develop collaborative studies with university colleagues and publish in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Dr. Hudnell also will support the marketing effort by establishing a communication link with SolarBee customers, municipal utilities and governmental agencies on the research results achieved with the long-distance circulation method pioneered by SolarBee.

Prior to joining SolarBee Inc., Dr. Hudnell served for 23 years as a neurotoxicologist in the US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory. He received numerous awards from the EPA for research and publication on exposure to air- and water-borne environmental pollutants and adverse health effects in humans. Dr. Hudnell and a colleague, Ritchie Shoemaker, MD, characterized “biotoxin-associated illness” in cohorts of humans exposed to dinoflagellate, cyanobacterial, and other microbial toxins. Their research led to the discovery that therapeutic application of cholestyramine, a non-absorbable polymer used to lower cholesterol levels through anion-exchange binding, resolved the signs and symptoms of “biotoxin-associated illness”. Dr. Hudnell most recently led an interagency effort to provide the scientific basis for meeting the Congressional mandates of the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act. To accomplish this goal, he addressed White House committees, co-authored the Congressional report, Scientific Assessment of Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms, and is the editor and an author in a book to be published in early 2008 by Springer Press Inc in the series, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms: State of the Science and Research Needs. Dr. Hudnell explained his reason for joining SolarBee as the same that initially led him to join EPA, “at this point in time, this is the best mechanism for serving the goals of human health protection and ecosystem sustainability.”

Dr. Hudnell holds undergraduate degrees in chemistry and biological psychology, and doctoral degrees in biological psychology and neurobiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship in neurotoxicology prior to joining the EPA.