Toxicology History Room

For the first time ever, the SOT Annual Meeting will feature a Toxicology History Room (THR). The exhibit will showcase documents and other printed matter, artifacts, memorabilia, and digital displays that highlight the historical importance and societal impact of toxicology, and the history of the SOT. The goal of the THR is to stimulate the interest of SOT members and other meeting attendees in the origins and evolution of toxicology. SOT membership involvement is welcomed. Please contact Martha Lindauer if you have historical items that you would like to loan or contribute to this effort, or would be interested in staffing the room.

The THR will be in the VIP Suite just off the Baltimore Convention Center Charles Street Lobby. Please stop by to learn about, and from, your past.

Toxicology History Room hours:

Monday	9:00 AM–4:30 PM
Tuesday	9:00 AM–4:30 PM
Wednesday	9:00 AM–4:30 PM

Tox History Room: 2009 Lecture Series

Monday, March 16

Welcome and Opening Remarks (9:15 AM)

Philip Wexler is a Technical Information Specialist at the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program. He is managing editor of the NLM sponsored online World Library of Toxicology, hosted by Toxipedia, coordinates and manages NLM’s risk assessment information databases and online tools on the TOXNET system, and is project manager of the LactMed file on drugs and lactation. He is team leader on the ToxLearn tutorials, a joint activity with the U.S. Society of Toxicology (SOT), and a trustee of the Toxicology Education Foundation. Formerly chair, for two years, of SOT’s World Wide Web Advisory Team, he is currently Vice-President of the Society’s Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues Specialty Section. Mr. Wexler has co-organized the new Toxicology History Room for the SOT annual meeting. He has published numerous papers on toxicology information and has lectured and taught widely on the subject in the U.S. and abroad. He is Editor-in Chief of the Encyclopedia of Toxicology, 2nd edition and Information Resources in Toxicology (4th edition due April 2009), both published by Elsevier Science. He is currently working on a monograph on Global Collaborations in Chemical Safety Management, for Taylor and Francis, and a special issue of Critical Reviews in Toxicology, focusing on toxicology informatics.

Steven G. Gilbert, Ph.D., DABT, Director and Founder of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders (INND), received a Ph.D. in Toxicology in 1986 from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, and is a Diplomat of American Board of Toxicology. He is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington and Affiliate Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, UW Bothell. He is a former owner and President of Biosupport, LTD., which he sold to SNBL USA Ltd. These firms were involved in pre-clinical contract research, toxicology, and specialized model development. Dr. Gilbert’s research has focused on neurobehavioral effects of low-level exposure to lead and mercury on the developing nervous system. His book, A Small Dose of Toxicology—The Health Effects of Common Chemicals was published in 2004 (www.asmalldoseof.org). Most recently he started a wiki based Web site Toxipedia (www.toxipedia.org) with the mission of connecting science and people and Healthy World Theater (www.healthyworldtheater.org) with goal of coupling art and science to forge a more healthy and peaceful world. (sgilbert@innd.org).

Bisphenol A: Historical Perspective (10:00 AM)

Sarah A. Vogel received her Ph.D. in 2008 from Columbia University’s Department of Sociomedical Sciences. Her dissertation, The Politics of Plastics: The Scientific, Political, and Economic History of Bisphenol A, examines the making and unmaking of a chemical’s safety from the 1950s to the present. She holds master’s degrees in public health and environmental management from Yale University. In 2008, she was the John Haas postdoctoral fellow at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. She is currently the Program Officer for the Environment program at the Johnson Family Foundation based in New York City.

Toxicological Highlights from the National Library of Medicine (3:00 PM)

Stephen J. Greenberg received his doctorate in Early Modern History from Fordham University with a dissertation on early printing and publishing. After teaching for several years, he returned to school and earned his library degree from Columbia University, specializing in Rare Books. Since 1992, he has worked in the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine, where he is currently Coordinator of Public Services. His papers and publications span a number of fields, including the history of printing and publishing, medicine and surgery in early modern Europe, and the history of medical librarianship. In 1996, he was awarded the MLA’s Murray Gottlieb Prize. He has taught many CE courses to both national and regional audiences, and he is the co-author (with Patricia E. Gallagher) of the Medical Library Association BibKit on resources in the History of the Health Sciences, now in its second edition, and the chapter on Special Collections Librarianship in Introduction to Health Sciences Librarianship, edited by M. Sandra Wood (Haworth Press, 2007). He is also an adjunct professor at the College of Library and Information Studies at the University of Maryland (College Park) where he lectures on the History of the Book.

Tuesday, March 17

Milestones of Toxicology (1:00 PM)

Steven G. Gilbert, Ph.D., DABT, Director and Founder of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders (INND), received a Ph.D. in Toxicology in 1986 from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, and is a Diplomat of American Board of Toxicology. He is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington and Affiliate Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, UW Bothell. He is a former owner and President of Biosupport, LTD., which he sold to SNBL USA Ltd. These firms were involved in pre-clinical contract research, toxicology, and specialized model development. Dr. Gilbert’s research has focused on neurobehavioral effects of low-level exposure to lead and mercury on the developing nervous system. His book, A Small Dose of Toxicology—The Health Effects of Common Chemicals was published in 2004 (www.asmalldoseof.org). Most recently he started a wiki based Web site Toxipedia (www.toxipedia.org) with the mission of connecting science and people and Healthy World Theater (www.healthyworldtheater.org) with goal of coupling art and science to forge a more healthy and peaceful world. (sgilbert@innd.org).

Antoinette (Toni) Hayes, N, M.S., a toxicologist of Wyether Biotech and received a M.S. in toxicology from Northeastern University. She has passionate interest in the history of toxicology. She collaborated with Steven G. Gilbert to develop the milestones of toxicology poster for the 2006 Society of Toxicology meeting and with writing a chapter for Molecular, Clinical, and Environmental Toxicology (Andreas Luch, ed. 2009) titled: Historical Milestones and Discoveries that Shaped the Toxicology Sciences. Toni is also the author of two chapters in the upcoming 4th edition of Information Resources in Toxicology.

The Modern History of Illegal Drugs in America (2:00 PM)

Cathleen Drew is the Education Coordinator for the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum in Arlington, Virginia. She received her Bachelors’ in Environmental Biology from the University of Colorado, and her Master’s in Museum Education from the George Washington University. She began her career at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration as a marine biology technician, progressing to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History as a research assistant, then on to the Smithsonian’s Environmental Research Center as an environmental education specialist. From there, she went to work for the National Park Service conducting hands-on-science in the parks with local schools. Cathleen has been at the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum since 2006, developing exhibits and education programs with a focus on the effects of drugs on the body.

Toxic Curiosities from the National Museum of Health and Medicine (3:00 PM)

James Curley is Collections Manager at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, DC. He represents the Historical Collections Division charged with collecting, preserving and presenting medical material culture at the museum, which was founded in 1862 as the Army Medical Museum. Curley joined the museum in 2008 having served at the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine at the University of Minnesota and within the Archives and Rare Books section of the Bernard Becker Medical Library, Washington University School of Medicine. In St. Louis he also worked with the American Academy of Neurology archival records collection. Recent presentations at the National Museum of Health and Medicine include “Trauma Bay II, Balad, Iraq� for the opening of an exhibition of emergency medicine during the current conflict and, at the University of Minnesota, “Barbarians, Fogies and a Humbug Pirate Cruise: Tales from a Nineteenth Century Maritime Medical Manuscript Archive� and “West Meets East—The James Stuart Manuscript Collection.� He is Vice President of the Medical Museums Association.

Wednesday, March 18

History and Perspectives on Lead (2:00 PM)

David Rosner is Ronald H. Lauterstein Professor of History and Public Health at Columbia University and Co-Director of Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. He received his doctorate from Harvard in the History of Science and formerly was University Distinguished Professor of History at the City University of New York. In addition to numerous grants, he has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow and a Josiah Macy Fellow. He has been awarded the Distinguished Scholar’s Prize from the City University and recently, the Viseltear Prize for Outstanding Work in the History of Public Health from the Medical Care Section of the American Public Health Association. He has also been a member of the Governing Council of the APHA. He has been researching the history of public health and health care as well as toxic substances and, with Dr. Markowitz, has published thirteen books and many articles on the history of hospitals, public health, silicosis, lead, vinyl chloride, and other materials.

Gerald Markowitz is University Distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the City University of New York Graduate Center. He has been awarded numerous grants, including those from the National Endowment for the Humanities and was a recipient of the Viseltear Prize from the Medical Care Section of the American Public Health Association for “Outstanding Contributions� to the history of public health. He has published three books and many articles on cultural and political history and, with Dr. Rosner, has written seven books on occupational and environmental diseases.

Together, Professors Markowitz and Rosner have co-authored and edited seven books and articles, including Deadly Dust: Silicosis and the Politics of Occupational Disease in Twentieth Century America, and Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution (University of California Press/Milbank, 2002), Are We Ready? Public Health After 9/11 (University of California Press/Milbank. 2006), and The Contested Boundaries of American Public Health (Rutgers University Press, 2008).

Love Canal: Historical Perspective (3:00 PM)

Stephen Lester has been the Science Director for the Center for Health, Environment and Justice since 1981. He got his start in working with communities affected by toxic waste sites when he was hired by the New York State Department of Health to be the technical advisor to the residents of Love Canal in Niagara Falls, NY. His primary work involves translating technical jargon into everyday language for community-based organizations and helping people understand the role of science and technical information in local community struggles. He also directs the Center’s research efforts that have produced over 100 guidebooks and fact-packs. Mr. Lester has sat on numerous scientific advisory committees including at the National Resource Council of the National Academy of Sciences, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers prior to their merger with the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, and has participated in peer review committees of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for their Basic Superfund Research and Environmental Justice programs. Mr. Lester has a Master’s degree in Toxicology from the Harvard University School of Public Health and a Master’s degree in Environmental Health from the New York University Institute of Environmental Medicine.

Fred Stoss is the Biological and Environmental Sciences and Mathematics Librarian in the Science and Engineering Library at the SUNY University at Buffalo. In addition to his Master in Library Science Degree, Fred holds undergraduate (BA) and graduate (MS) degrees in biology and zoology. He has eight years of research experience in the area of environmental toxicology and 25 years in the area of information and library science.