Dr. Haley received his BS in Chemistry/Physics from Franklin College in 1963. After a tour in the U.S. Army, he completed his M.S. in Chemistry at the University of Idaho (1967) and his Ph.D. in Chemistry/Biochemistry at Washington State University (1971). He was an NIH Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Physiology, Yale University Medical School from 1971 to 1974. His first academic appointment was at the University of Wyoming in 1974 where he was promoted to full professor in 1983. In 1985, he was appointed as the first scientist hired in the Markey Cancer Center at the University of Kentucky with academic appointments as professor in the College of Pharmacy and in the Department of Biochemistry of the University of Kentucky Medical Center. In 1996, he was named Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry. He is also co-founder and scientific advisor of Affinity Labeling Technologies, Inc., a biotech company that synthesizes and markets to major research institutes nucleotide photoaffinity analogs for biomedical research. He has developed a diagnostic marker for Alzheimer’s disease that is currently under development by others.

In the past 17 years, Dr. Haley has emphasized studies on the biochemistry of Alzheimer’s disease. His research in the biochemical aberrancies in Alzheimer’s disease also lead to his identifying mercury toxicity as a major exacerbating factor, perhaps even a causal factor for this disease. He was one of the first to propose that the organic-mercury preservative (thimerosal) in infant vaccines was the most likely toxic agent involved in autism related disorders. He has followed this up with research that demonstrates that several additional factors (Al3+, certain antibiotics), including testosterone, increase the toxicity of thimerosal. Further, in collaboration with others he has shown using mercury analysis of birth-hair that autistics represent a subset of the population that cannot excrete mercury effectively.

In the past few years, Dr. Haley has testified before numerous government agencies on the effects of mercury toxicity from dental amalgams and vaccines. This list includes two times before the Congressional Committee on Government Reform, the Pentagon to Surgeon Generals, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and legislative committees of the states of Maine and New Hampshire. In the latter situation, both states enacted legislation requiring dentists to inform patients of the 50% mercury in dental amalgam fillings and the concern of many that emission of mercury from these amalgams affects personal health. This past year he testified before the FDA committee for Review and Analysis of the Literature on the Health Effects of Dental Amalgams and will also present before a new committee of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences regarding vaccines and autism.

Dr. Haley is also a member of the Autism Think Tank of the Autism Association and is on the board of the Swedish Foundation for Metal Biology. He has been invited to present lectures on the subject of mercury toxicity and neurological diseases at international conferences in England, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, France, Germany, New Zealand, Mexico and Denmark.

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