Peter Jutro

obtained his PHD for research in natural resources conservation, the geography of infectious diseases, and chemical ecology from Cornell University. Upon obtaining his degree, he joined the faculty as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Policy and Management, as well as Applied Mathematics. Dr. Jutro focused his research on quantitative risk assessment methodology, as well as public policy and environmental law and policy.

Most recently, Dr. Peter Jutro served as Acting Associate EPA Administrator for Homeland Security. Before that, he was Deputy Director for Science and Policy, and Director of the Washington office of EPA’s National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC), a group he helped organize that is responsible for the research needed to provide the science and technology for EPA’s disaster mandates, which fall primarily in the areas of decontamination, water protection, risk assessment and resilience. From 1995 - 2005, while an active research scientist, he also served as Counselor for Environment and Security to several EPA Administrators and Acting Administrators.

Outside his years of federal work, Peter Jutro remains a passionate environmental advocate. He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Center for Native Lands and supports a variety of causes pertaining to the environment including sustainable energy, global climate change, biodiversity, disaster preparedness and prevention, and more. He is also an inquisitive learner, always seeking to further his understanding of the world and how to care for it. He likes to joke that he thinks like a professor...because he was one!

Dr. Peter Jutro is also an avid traveler. He credits his interest in travel to his thirst for knowledge- to learn more about the world and the animals, people and cultures in it. He lives by his wife Ellen’s motto that, “The more you travel, the bigger the world gets.” Dr. Jutro is always excited by an opportunity to connect research or education with travel. For instance, he is currently working on a book about an island in the Florida Keys, Lignumvitae Key, that is home to the last lowland tropical forest remaining in the United States. He has been involved in the research and preservation of this area since the 1970s and travels there frequently.

Dr. Peter Jutro has has an invested interest in his family’s genealogy and history, being of German-Jewish descent. His late father, a German emigrant to the United States, spent several months in a Berlin concentration camp leading up to World War II. Dr. Jutro recently found a journal among his family’s possessions detailing his time spent in the concentration camp and is working on transcribing it into English.