Awards
- Bicentennial Medal - 2019
About Diane S. Henshel
Diane Henshel is an associate professor in the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and was the University Faculty Council co-chair in 2019-2020. She earned a B.A. and B.S. from Brown University and a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences-neuroscience from Washington University St. Louis. Henshel is an expert in risk assessment and sub-lethal health effectives of environmental pollutants. Her research focuses on the effects of pollutants on wildlife and human health and on assessment of a novel non-invasive treatment to counteract chemical distress.
Henshel joined the O'Neill faculty in 1992 after post-doctoral work at the University of British Columbia. She is the principal in Henshel EnviroComm, a technical and risk communication-focused consulting company that provides technical support to government agencies and communities addressing environmental contamination. Her wildlife work involves correlations between field and laboratory studies, typically focusing on developmental or neuroendocrine-related effects. The human health work usually entails using existing databases to draw correlations between population level indicators of health effects with landscape scale indicators of environmental contamination, often incorporating socioeconomic indicators as co-factors. She is also developing a new holistic cybersecurity risk assessment paradigm.
Henshel has served as PI or co-PI for millions of dollars in environmental research including a study funded by the Army Research Laboratory on computer security risk. She has authored or co-authored hundreds of scholarly articles and book chapters, and has been invited to present at conferences and organizational meetings around the world. She has received the IU Outstanding Junior Professor Award (1997), IU SPEA Teaching Award (2005, 2008), and the IU Trustees Teaching Award (2008).
Hershel received the IU Bicentennial Medal in August 2019 in recognition of her distinguished service as co-chair of the University Faculty Council.