2024 William D. Wagner Awardee

The William D. Wagner Award, established in 2003, is presented annually to a person in the field of national and international worker health and safety who is an outstanding example of commitment and dedication to the creation and dissemination of occupational exposure values (OEVs).

The 2024 William D. Wagner Award recipient is Dennis M. Casserly, PhD, CIH, FAIHA.

Dennis Casserly is Professor Emeritus of Occupational Safety and Health in the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Houston – Clear Lake (UHCL). He received a BA in Biology from the University of St. Thomas (Houston) and a MS and PhD in Environmental Health from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston – School of Public Health. He was Assistant Professor of Environmental Science (1979-1984) at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA. In 1984, he was appointed Assistant Professor and Program Director of the Industrial Hygiene and Safety program at UHCL, where he went through the ranks to Professor. Along the way he served as Chair of Environmental Science, Chair of Natural Sciences, Associate Dean of the College of Science and Engineering and Radiation Safety Officer.  He enjoyed working in the field and lab and teaching Noise and Hearing Conservation, Industrial Ventilation, Ionizing and Non-Ionizing Radiation, Laboratory Safety, Industrial Hygiene Sampling and Analysis, Control of Occupational and Environmental Hazards, Air Pollution/Air Quality Management, Analytical Methods for the Evaluation of Health Hazards, Research Methods and Projects in Occupational Safety and Health. He retired from full-time service at the end of 2015. He is certified in the Comprehensive Practice of Industrial Hygiene (CIH) by the Board for Global EHS Credentialing. He is a member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) since 1983, and he is an AIHA Fellow. He is a member of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists since 1980 and has served on the Threshold Limit Value (TLV) Committee since 1990. He serves as Treasurer of the Gulf Coast Section of AIHA (2016-present). His teaching and research have been devoted to identification of occupational and environmental problems, evaluation of the findings in terms of health significance, and recommending control measures. He has studied: ambient air; occupational environments; residential and office indoor air; and spacecraft atmospheres.

Previous Award Recipients

• 2003 — Elizabeth K. Weisburger, ScD, PhD
• 2004 — Daniel L. Johnson, PhD
• 2005 — Vera F. Thomas, PhD
• 2006 — Ernest Mastromatteo, CD, MD, DPH, DIH, FABPM (Occ Med), CCBOM, MFOM (London)
• 2007 — Gerald V. Coles, CChem
• 2008 — Masayuki Ikeda, PhD, MD
• 2009 — B. Dwight Culver, MD
• 2010 — D. Jack Lund
• 2011 — Karl-Heinz Schaller
• 2012 — Gerald L. Kennedy
• 2013 — Thomas S. Tenforde, PhD
• 2014 — Michael S. Morgan, ScD, CIH
• 2015 — Robert Spirtas, DrPH
• 2016 — Martin G. Cherniack, MPH, MD
• 2017 — Larry K. Lowry, PhD
• 2018 — David Michaels, PhD
• 2019 — Thomas J. Armstrong, PhD, CIH
• 2020 — John Cocker, PhD
• 2021 — Terry Gordon, PhD, MS
• 2022 — Thomas E. Bernard
• 2023 — Glenn Talaska, PhD