Robert Santore

Bob is an environmental scientist with over three decades of experience in aquatic chemistry, chemical modeling, and regulatory science. His work has focused on understanding the chemical and biological factors that affect the bioavailability and toxicity of metals in the environment. He is a principal developer of the biotic ligand model (BLM), which was used to revise the U.S. EPA's ambient water quality criteria for copper. He has also developed BLM-based guidelines for copper and nickel in Canada for Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME), and the British Columbia Ministry of the Environment. He has developed BLM versions for multiple environmental media—freshwater, marine, soil, and sediment—for a wide range of metals, including aluminum, cadmium, cobalt, copper, lead, nickel, silver, and zinc. Bob authors and maintains BLM-based software tools and makes them freely available for use by regulatory agencies, researchers, and environmental professionals.