Jim Craner

• Starting with becoming the leader of Princeton Environmental Action on campus and participating in the statewide Youth Environmental Society (YES), Jim became actively involved in numerous environmental issues, both technically and politically. 

• The 1980s was a decade of political transformation in New Jersey in terms of environmental awareness and legislation.  Jim spearheaded New Jersey's first student political action committee, generating bipartisan support for state legislators and the then-unknown candidate, Frank Lautenberg, who would be elected as New Jerseys US Senator and would eventually serve multiple terms and sponsor major federal hazardous waste and toxic substances legislation.  Animal protection measures were another topic that Jim learned about and later transformed his personal lifestyle and interests. 

• At age 19, Jim became the youngest member of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Environmental Lobby (NJEL), where he cut his teeth under the mentorship of the organization's lobbyist on issues that included the nation's first Workplace and Community Right to Know law and the New Jersey Bottle Bill, as well as lobbying and fundraising efforts as well and trips to the State House in Trenton.  

• Jim's senior thesis, Monitoring Air Emissions of Volatile Organic Pollutants from Landfills, a joint effort between the Chemistry department and the inchoate Environmental Engineering program, entailed technical scientific innovation and field testing as well as policy analysis—both areas of focus in Jim's professional career choice of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

• It was also at Princeton that Jim met his closest and now lifelong friends, including External Selection Committee member, Rich Herschlag.

• The early part of his career involved clinical care, and evolved into his becoming the first company physician for Fitzgeralds Hotel-Casino, providing in-house primary care and occupational health to its employees in Reno and later, Las Vegas, Nevada.   This work led to his role as medical director for North America's (then) largest casino sign company, Mikohn Gaming, providing medical surveillance and developing programs for neon sign (mercury), isocyanate and solvent-based spray painting, and fiberglass reinforced polyester (FRP) sculpture manufacturing; ergonomic assessments for electronics assemblers; and other occupational health and risk management-related services in Utah, South Dakota, Mississippi and Nevada.

• From 1995 to 2019, Jim's private practice in occupational and environmental medicine focused on chemical health, toxicology, epidemiology, public health and prevention.  After consulting on and working closely with scientists at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) to diagnose the cause of a "sick building" at Nevada's largest governmental office building, Jim's career quickly pivoted to specialize in the burgeoning field of indoor air pollution (workplace and residential).  Demand from the private and public sectors to diagnose sick building syndrome throughout the United States found Jim conducting clinical consultations, public health investigations and research on mold contamination in water-damaged buildings, and providing expert services in construction defects, water intrusion-related insurance claims, and building remediation litigation.  He was a key contributor to the Health Effects chapter of the IICRC/ S520 Mold Remediation Standard (1st and 2nd editions), and in 2009 authored a scathing article that critiqued unethical practices by occupational medicine physicians encountering patients with mold exposure and illness in water-damaged buildings.

• Around 2005—again fortuitously prompted by responding to a phone call while on vacation (!)—Jim's practice shifted toward medical surveillance, biological monitoring, respiratory and noise protection, providing both clinical (patient care) and consultation services to highly hazardous industries including metallurgical assay laboratories, lead oxide flux manufacturing, precious metal (gold, silver) mining, lead shot manufacturing, lead-acid battery recycling ranging from small, medium and large companies.

• In 1995, Jim joined the faculty as an adjunct (volunteer) assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine's Department of Medicine, division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, under the invitation and auspices of (the late) Joe LaDou, MD, MS, who became a mentor.  Jim has served in that role to the present day, along with serving on the advisory board for the associated University of California Berkeley's Center for Occupational and Environmental Health.  Through this affiliation, Jim authored a major occupational medicine textbook chapter on Medical Surveillance and co-authored the chapter on Workers' Compensation with Dr. LaDou.  

• Jim's unique insights into the complex challenges of occupational and environmental medicine inspired his software company, Verdi Technology, Inc. (VTI). 

  • VTI (then VTA) began in 2001 with indoor air quality software applications.  VTA's first product, EpIAQ, had a limited commercial success in epidmiological analysis of sick buildings, and was utilized along with original research in partnership with UNLV in US Department of Energy-funded building science research grant, the findings from which are (or were) in the public domain.

  •  From 2008-2011, after having  fully recognized the challenges that companies in hazardous industries of all sizes face in the time-consuming, error-prone process of leveraging health and safety data, Jim spearheaded the creation and development of the company's flagship software-as-a-service product, webOSCAR™.  This configurable, software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform automates and streamlines the process of managing dynamic, inter-related health and safety data in a single, real-time system. The platform has been used continuously companies in mining, metallurgical assaying, chemical manufacturing, and other industries since 2011.  Over the next decade, the platform expanded to become webOSCAR 2.0.  

  • Through commercial R&D projects, Jim has collaborated with his VTI colleagues to develop advanced data analytics and predictive metrics for biological monitoring, occupational hearing (audiometric data), and pulmonary function.  These analytics transform complex, raw individual data into actionable, population-based metrics for effectively tracking employees' health, reducing risk, and maximizing productivity in hazardous industries and occupations.  

    • The audiometric analytics technology, a finalist in NIOSH's first Noise Challenge (2016), has since been proved out at one of the largest gold mines in North America and is currently patented/patent-pending and undergoing final refinement and validation in preparation for commercialization.  

    • Dr. Craner has published two peer-reviewed articles on audiometric analytics in 2022 and 2026,  both of which address the need and potential application of this ground-breaking technology to effectively leverage aggregated audiometric database analysis to prevent the world's number one occupational disease, noise-induced hearing loss.

• Between 2016 and 2019, Tesla constructed North America's first lithium ion battery factory located in the Reno, NV area.  Jim was perfectly positioned in the right place, time and skill set, and ultimately became and served from 2019 to 2023 as Tesla's first Corporate Physician where  he led Tesla's Occupational Health strategy for vehicle, battery, and energy storage manufacturing, service, recycling and research.  After formally retiring from Tesla in 2023, Jim has continued to consult part-time on occupational health and chemical toxicity primarily in lithium battery industries ranging from mining and refining to manufacturing and recycling. 

Jim also informally mentors colleagues in occupational and environmental medicine and industrial hygiene, as well as students in medical residency, medical school, college, high school and even junior high school.