Dr. Jean Brender, associate dean for research and professor of epidemiology at the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health, has been appointed to the National Research Council Committee on Analysis of Cancer Risks in Populations near Nuclear Facilities: Phase 2 Pilot Planning. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (U.S. NRC) requested that the National Research Council within The National Academies provide an assessment of cancer risks in populations near U.S. NRC-licensed nuclear facilities. The nine-member committee of which Dr. Brender is a member is providing advice regarding the design and implementation of two pilot studies around seven U.S. nuclear facilities including an ecologic study of multiple cancer types of populations and a record-linkage-based case-control study of cancers in children.