Joel Baker, Ph.D.

Professor Joel Baker holds the Port of Tacoma Chair in Environmental Science and is the Science Director of the Center for Urban Waters. He earned a B.S. degree in Environmental Chemistry from SUNY Syracuse (1982) and M.S. (1985) and Ph.D. (1988) degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Baker's research interests center about the transport of organic contaminants in the environment, specifically atmospheric transport and deposition, aerosol chemistry, the dynamics of contaminant transport in estuaries, and modeling the exposure and transfer of bioaccumulative chemicals in aquatic food webs. He teaches courses in water quality modeling, environmental chemistry, and quantitative methods. He has co-authored over ninety papers on contaminant cycling in the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay and coastal waters, and edited Atmospheric Deposition of Contaminants to the Great Lakes and Coastal Waters (SETAC Press, 1997). He was the lead author on a scientific review of PCBs in the Hudson River, a contributing author to the Pew Oceans Commission report Marine Pollution in the United States, and a member of the NRC's Committee on Oil in the Sea, chaired the New York Harbor Model Evaluation Group, advised the European Commission on water quality modeling, and served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Dr. Baker is a member of the Puget Sound Partnership Science Panel, which he chaired from 2007-2009.

Selected Publications:

• Klosterhaus*, S.L., Dries, E. and J.E. Baker (2011) Bioaccumulation kinetics of polybrominated diphenyl ethers from estuarine sediments to the marine polychaete, Nereis virens. Environ. Toxicol. Chem., 30(5), 1204-1212.
• Jiang, J.J, C.L. Lee, M.D. Fang, F.C. Ko, and J.E. Baker (2011) Polybrominated diphenyl ethers and polychlorinated biphenyls in sediments of southwest Taiwan: regional characteristics and potential sources. Marine Pollut. Bull., 62, 815-823.
• Klosterhaus*, S.L. and J.E. Baker (2010) Bioavailability of decabromodiphenyl ether to the marine polychaete Nereis virens., Environ. Toxicol. Chem., 29(4), 860-868.
• Rowe, C.L., Mitchelmore, C.L. and J.E. Baker (2009) Lack of biological effects of water accommodated fractions of chemically- and physically-dispersed oil on molecular, physiological, and behavioral traits of juvenile snapping turtles following embryonic exposure. Sci. Total Environ., 407(20), 5344-5355.
• Ashley, J.T.F., M.L. Webster*, R.J. Horwitz, D.J. Velinsky, and J.E. Baker (2009) Polychlorinated biphenyls in sediment and biota from the Delaware River estuary. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadel., 158, 89-105.
• Kelly, S.M., Eisenreich, K.M., J.E. Baker, and C.L. Rowe (2008) Accumulation and maternal transfer of polychlorinated biphenyls in snapping turtles of the upper Hudson River, New York, USA. Environ. Toxicol. Chem., 27(12), 2565-2574.
• Fang*, M.D., Hsieh, P.C., Ko, F.C., Baker, J.E., and C.L. Lee (2007) Sources and distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the sediments of Kaoping River and submarine canyon system, Taiwan. Marine Pollut. Bullet., 54(8), 11179-1189.
• Schneider*, A.R., Porter, E.T., and J.E. Baker (2007) Polychlorinated biphenyl release from resuspended Hudson River sediment. Environ. Sci. Technol., 41(14), 1097-1103.
• Crimmins*, B.S. and J.E. Baker (2006) Improved GC/MS methods for measuring hourly PAH and nitro-PAH concentrations in urban particulate matter. Atmos. Environ., 40(35), 6764-6779.
• Hornbuckle, K.C., D.L. Carlson, D.L. Swackhamer, J.E. Baker, and S.J. Eisenreich (2006) Polychlorinated biphenyls in the Great Lakes. In Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, Volume 5, R.A. Hites, Ed., Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
• Offenberg*, J., M. Simcik, J. Baker, and S.J. Eisenreich (2005) The impact of urban areas on the deposition of air toxics to adjacent surface waters: a mass budget of PCBs in Lake Michigan in 1994. Aquatic Sci, 67, 79-85.
• Tuerk, K.J.S., Kucklick, Becker, J.R., Stapleton*, H.M. and J.E. Baker (2005) Toxaphene and PBDEs in Atlantic white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhychus acutus) and rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis), Environ. Sci. Technol., 39, 692-698.
• Crimmins*, B.S., R.R. Dickerson, B.G. Doddridge and J.E. Baker (2004) Particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean atmospheres during INDOEX and AEROSOLs99: Continental sources to the marine atmosphere. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 109 (D5).
• Stapleton*, H.M., Alaee, M., Letcher, R.J. and J.E. Baker (2004) Debromination of the flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ether by juvenile carp (Cyprinus carpio) following dietary exposure. Environ. Sci. Technol., 38, 112-119.
• Stapleton*, H.M. and J.E. Baker (2003) Comparing polybrominated diphenyl ether and polychlorinated biphenyl bioaccumulation in a food web in Grand Traverse Bay, Lake Michigan. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol, 45, 227-234.
• Coleman, J., Baker, J.E., Cooper, C., Fingas, M., Hunt, G., Kvenvolden, K., Michel, K., Michel, J., McDowell, J., Phinney, J., Pond, R., Rabalais, N., Roesner, L., and Spies, R.B. (2003) Oil in the Sea III: Inputs, Fates, and Effects. The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 265 pp.
• Larsen*, R.K. and J.E. Baker (2003) Source apportionment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the urban atmosphere: a comparison of three methods. Environ. Sci. Technol., 37, 1873-1881.

*graduate student in J. Baker's laboratory