Employee Spotlight: Adam Edelman-Muñoz

Meet ORAU employee Adam Edelman-Muñoz. Adam is an ORAU contractor working under the National Student Services Contract (NSSC) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As a Chemical Transformation Database Developer, Adam provides support to the Office of Research and Development Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure team, Chemical Characterization and Exposure Division, and the Computational Chemistry and Cheminformatics Branch located in Research Triangle Park, NC.

The Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure (CCTE) supports ORD by providing solutions-driven research to rapidly evaluate the potential human health and environmental risks due to exposures to environmental stressors and ensure the integrity of the freshwater environment and its capacity to support human well-being.  CCTE researchers are developing and applying cutting-edge innovations in methods to rapidly evaluate chemical toxicity, transport, and exposure to people and environments.  Within CCTE, the Chemical Characterization and Exposure Division (CCED) performs research to develop and advance analytical chemistry, computational chemistry, and cheminformatic approaches that are critical to the rapid characterization of the presence, structural characteristics, and properties of chemicals that underlie chemical exposure, environmental fate, toxicokinetic and toxicity.

Adam works with ORD’s Computational Chemistry and Cheminformatics Branch team as a developer working on a concept application called the Chemical Transformations Database (CTDB). The CTDB serves as a searchable database of observed chemical transformations sourced from literature with accessible reaction kinetics, system information, and references to the source material. The database is intended to support chemical exposure, risk assessment, and predictive modeling efforts within EPA.

Background

Adam was born in Houston, Texas, and was raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Adam is a graduate of New York University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Physics. He continued his education and obtained a master’s degree in Statistics from North Carolina State University.

Fun Fact: Adam is a black belt with 23 years of training in Jido-Kwon Tae-Kwon-Do. He also has been fencing for 15 years, and he has coached fencing for 5 years.