Linda Birnbaum
| Linda Silber Birnbaum | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
December 21, 1946 Passaic, New Jersey |
| Residence | Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
| Nationality | U.S.A |
| Citizenship | U.S.A |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Spouse(s) | David Birnbaum |
| Children | Dr. Bernard Joe Birnbaum Md. husband of Dr. Rachel Lee Feldman Md., Holly Ann Martin wife of Jason Martin, Lisa Birnbaum |
| Awards | Was elected to the Institute of Medicine in October 2010, as well as to the Collegium Ramazzini; Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Illinois; 2013 Homer N. Calver Award from the American Public Health Association |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Toxicology, microbiology |
| Institutions | National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences |
| Thesis | Localization, enrichment and in vitro transcription of the ribosomal RNA genes in Escherichia coli (1972) |
Linda Silber Birnbaum is an American toxicologist, microbiologist and the current director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, as well as the National Toxicology Program, positions to which she was appointed on January 18, 2009. She also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health and as a member of the editorial board of Environment International.
Birnbaum, a native of New Jersey, attended Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Teaneck, New Jersey, where she became interested in science because she was a cheerleader, and her cheerleading coach was also her science teacher: "I was a cheerleader, and that positive reinforcement made it okay to like science," she recalled in an interview with Scientific American. Birnbaum received her B.S. in biology from the University of Rochester and her M.S. and PhD degrees in microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Birnbaum, prior to becoming the director of the NIEHS and NTP, worked at the National Toxicology Program as a senior staff fellow, then as a research microbiologist, and then as a group leader for the Chemical Disposition Group. Birnbaum then began a stint at the Environmental Protection Agency, where she directed the largest agency focused on environmental health research for 19 years. She has also served as the past president of the Society of Toxicology. After she became director of the NIEHS, she declared that she "plan[s] to create a holistic approach that can deal with the biggies, from complex mixtures of toxic chemicals to climate change." She reiterated her commitment to addressing the effects of global warming on human health before the Copenhagen Summit that November. She singled out ozone and black carbon as examples of pollutants with serious adverse health effects.
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