Dr. Sonawane received awarded PhD degree in Entomology by the University of Missouri, Columbia Campus in 1971. He was a NIH postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences from 1972-1975. He served as a faculty member in the Departments of Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the School of Medicine, as well as at the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA from 1975- 1983. He worked with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Rockville, MD and the U. S. Environmental protection Agency in Washington, DC in various capacities He is very well recognized expert in the fields of Toxicology and Risk Assessment of chemicals. He is an author and/or co-author of over 100 publications and several book chapters in the fields of toxicology and pharmacology, children’s environmental health and risk assessment. In 2016, he was awarded the most Distinguished Service Citation by the Administrator of USEPA in recognition of his dedicated service to the American People and abroad. Dr Sonawane was honored to serve as an invited member of the Nomination Committee for the Heinz Foundation Awards (2011-2013).

Dr Sonawane initiated, planned, organized,sponsored and/or participated in numerous scientific workshops, meetings and conferences actively promoting environmental health and risk assessment issues and challenges of environmental agents in several countries around the world. Dr. Sonawane throughout his professional career served as a mentor and advisor and has trained 40 plus scientists at different level of their career