Dr. Charles R. Santerre is a Professor of Food Toxicology and Interim Head of the School of Health Sciences at Purdue University. In 2014-15, he served as a National Academy of Sciences, Jefferson Science Fellow and was hosted by the U.S. Department of State in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research where he received a top secret clearance and special compartmented information access (TS/SCI). In 2014, he was appointed to the Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition’s Food Advisory Committee. In 2010-11, he served as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Policy Technology Fellow and was sponsored by the USDA, Food Safety Inspection Service, Office of Public Health Science, Risk Assessment Division where he developed and has helped to implement a vision for identifying, measuring, and responding to emerging chemical contaminants in meat and poultry products. He serves or has served as a food safety expert for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Life Sciences Institute of North America, and the International Food Information Council. He holds degrees in Human Nutrition (B.S.), and Environmental Toxicology & Food Science (Ph.D.), both from Michigan State University. Prior to joining Purdue University in 1998, he was an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Environmental Sciences Program at The Ohio State University and an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Health Science Program and the Interdepartmental Toxicology Program at the University of Georgia (with a Courtesy Appointment in the Institute of Ecology).

His research involves emerging chemical hazards in foods i.e., rapid detection, measuring residues in foods, conducting exposure assessments, assessing bioaccessibility and bioavailability, determining clearance, developing biomarkers, and using predictive models to predict toxicity.