Andrew I. Soiefer, PhD ‘84

Andrew I. Soiefer, PhD ‘84

Dr. Soiefer was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up in Great Neck, Long Island. As a youth he developed an early interest in chemistry and went on to study it as an undergraduate. In 1976, he received a B.S. in C with honors from Allegheny College. In 1983, he earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the School of Medicine at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His thesis research was conducted under the guidance of Dr. Paul J. Kostyniak and studied a novel hepatic enzyme that cleaved the carbon fluoride bond of fluoroacetate. After Buffalo Andrew trained as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in Neuroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. In 1985, Dr. Soiefer joined the Neuroscience faculty at Albert Einstein as a member of the Institute of Neurotoxicology.

In 1988, Dr. Soiefer accepted a job as a staff toxicologist at the American Petroleum Institute in Washington, D.C. In this role he managed a multi-million dollar toxicology program on commercial hexane mandated by EPA under TSCA. Then, in 1991, the Hoechst Celanese Corporation hired him as a Manager of Toxicology. At Hoechst, Dr. Soiefer supported product development, product registration and occupational health for the Engineered resins, Fibers and Pharmaceutical businesses. These businesses had combined sales of 3.5 billion dollars. In 1999, he started North Jersey Toxicology Associates, LLC, a consulting firm providing EH&S services to the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.  For the next 18 years until his retirement Dr. Soiefer was Chief Scientist at NJTA.

Dr. Soiefer was board certified in Toxicology in 1990 and maintained certification for 30 years. He is a full member of the Society of Toxicology and the American Chemical Society. He has held membership in the American Industrial Hygiene Association, the New York Academy of Science and Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society. Andrew was an Alden Scholar at Allegheny College and a Belfer Research Fellow at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Soiefer was recognized at Hoechst for Excellence in Setting Workplace Exposure Levels and Teaching. In 2002, Dr. Soiefer was the recipient of the Outstanding Chairman Award from the AIHA WEEL Committee. Dr. Soiefer is the author of twelve original journal articles, a book chapter and 29 research abstracts.

As an expert in chemical risk Dr. Soiefer is one of a small group of occupational toxicologists setting safe exposure levels for chemicals in the workplace. His focus in this area began at Hoechst but has continued at a National level through 29 years of voluntary service on AIHA’s Workplace Environmental Exposure Level Committee (now a TERA Committee). Dr. Soiefer is passionate about public health and has recently joined New Jersey’s Medical Reserve Corps and is currently assigned to a vaccination team giving the Covid-19 and flu vaccines in Hoboken, NJ.