Wendy E Wagner
- Richard Dale Endowed Chair in Law
Faculty Profile: Wendy E Wagner
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Biography
Professor Wagner is a leading authority on the use of science by environmental policy-makers. She received a Masters of Environmental Studies and her law degree, both from Yale, where she was Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal and Managing Editor of the Yale Journal of Regulation. Before entering teaching, she practiced for four years, first as an Honors Attorney in the Enforcement Division of the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division, and then as Pollution Control Coordinator with the Department of Agriculture's Office of the General Counsel. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Texas, Professor Wagner taught at Case Western Law School and was a visiting professor at Columbia and Vanderbilt Law Schools.
Prof. Wagner’s research focuses on the intersection of law and science, with particular attention to environmental policy. Among her publications, “Bending Science: How Special Interests Corrupt Public Health Research,” a 2009 book Wagner co-authored with UT colleague, Tom McGarity, received the Hamilton Grand Prize for the best book published at UT in 2009. "Dynamic Rulemaking" (with Bill West, Tom McGarity, and Lisa Peters) was awarded the 2018 American Bar Association Award for Scholarship in Administrative Law. Several other articles ("The Science Charade in Toxic Risk Regulation”, "Equal Treatment for Regulatory Science" (co-authored with David Michaels), and “Misunderstanding Models” (co-authored with Pasky Pascual and Liz Fisher)) were chosen as one of the best environmental law articles of the year and reprinted in the Land Use and Environmental Law Review. Two other articles (“Information Capture and Filter Failure” and “Competition-based Regulation”) were selected for publication in the ELI-Vanderbilt Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review as among the top articles of the year.
Prof. Wagner has served on several National Academies of Science Committees, the Bipartisan Policy Center Committee on Regulatory Science, and served as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the U.S. (ACUS) on a project on the agencies’ use of science. Wagner has also served on the governing councils of the ABA Administrative Law Section, the National Conference of Scientists and Lawyers (AAAS-ABA Committee), and the Society for Risk Analysis. Wagner is a Member Scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform.
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Professional Activities
2023
May 2023
Presenter
Vanderbilt and Tilburg Conference on Use of Science in the Courts
April 2023
Presenter
Faculty Colloquium, University of Colorado
April 2023
Panelist
Harvard Kennedy School Conference on Risk and Uncertainty in the United States and Brazil
2022
Aug. 2022
Panelist
National Academies of Sciences Workshop on Toxic Substances and Children’s Health
July 2022
Panelist
Law and Society Annual Conference
June 2022
Presenter
Depaul Clifford Symposium on Corporate Accountability and Tort Law
June 2022
Presenter
Tilburg Law School, Netherlands Conference on Courts and Science
April 2022
Panelist
Vanderbilt Workshop on the draft “Networks, Platforms, and. Utilities” casebook
Vanderbilt Workshop on the draft “Networks, Platforms, and. Utilities” casebook
March 2022
Commentator
Villanova Symposium on Ed Cheng’s Novel Proposal for a new Admissibility Test for Scientific Evidence
Feb. 2022
Panelist
Knight Institute on Government Lies and the First Amendment
2021
December 1, 2021
Testimony
House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, Judiciary Committee
“The Administrative Procedure Act at 75: Ensuring the Rulemaking Process is Transparent, Accountable, and Effective”
June 2021
Presenter
Conference on Science in the Courts organized jointly by Vanderbilt and Tilburg University in the Netherlands
2020
Dec 2020
Panelist
Toxic Free Future for Our Children
2019
June 10, 2019
Administrative Law New Scholarship Roundtable
University of Wisconsin School of Law
April 11, 2019
Environmental Law Seminar Series
UCLA Law School
April 2, 2019
Law and Economics Workshop
University of Bonn, Germany
February 21, 2019
Faculty Colloquia
University of Virginia School of Law
February 21, 2019
Duke Law Journal Symposium on Deregulation
Duke Law School
2018
March 8, 2018
Invitational workshop on empirical research on administrative law
University of Wisconsin
2017
December 15, 2017
Conference on “Industry Influence in Financial Regulation”
Harvard University, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies
March 17, 2017
Conference on Science and Evidence
Columbia University
March 3, 2017
Faculty Colloquia
Northwestern Law School
Winter 2017
Panel on Science and Environmental Law
Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference;
February 9, 2017
Seminar on Interest Groups
Vanderbilt Law School
Winter 2017
Faculty Colloquia
Cornell Law School
2016
Fall 2016
Conference on Tort Law and Innovation
Heidelberg University, Germany
Spring 2016
Conference on Public Participation in Administrative Law
University of Paris Law School Pantheon-Sorbonne
Spring 2016
Faculty Colloquia
University of Minnesota School of Law