- Theo Colborn
Infobox scientist
name = Dr. Theo Colborn
image_size = 150px
birth_date =
birth_place =
nationality =United States
field =Zoology
work_institutions =University of Florida
alma_mater =Rutgers University University of Wisconsin
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for =
prizes =Theo Colborn is a Professor of
Zoology at theUniversity of Florida, Gainesville , and President of The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TDEX), based inPaonia, Colorado . She is anenvironmental health analyst, and best known for her studies on the health effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals.Academic career
Dr. Colborn earned a PhD at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison in Zoology (distributed minors inepidemiology ,toxicology , and waterchemistry ); an MA in Science atWestern State College of Colorado (fresh-waterecology ); and a BS in Pharmacy fromRutgers University , College of Pharmacy. In 1985, Dr. Colborn received a Fellowship from the Office of Technology Assessment, U.S. Congress. From there she joined theConservation Foundation in 1987 to provide scientific guidance for the 1990 book, Great Lakes, Great Legacy?, in collaboration with the Institute for Research and Public Policy, Ottawa, Canada at the request of the Canada/US International Joint Commission. She held a Chair for three years, starting in 1990, with the W. Alton Jones Foundation, and given a three-year Pew Fellows Award in 1993.Dr. Colborn has served on numerous advisory panels, including the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board, the Ecosystem Health Committee of the International Joint Commission of the United States and Canada, the Science Management Committee of the Toxic Substances Research Initiative of Canada, the U.S. EPA Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee, and the EPA Endocrine Disruption Methods and Validation Subcommittee. She has published and lectured extensively on the consequences ofprenatal exposure to synthetic chemicals by the developingembryo andfetus in wildlife, laboratory animals, and humans. Over the years she established and directed the Wildlife and Contaminants Program atWorld Wildlife Fund US.In her retirement she has set up a non-profit, TEDX, to carry on the work of providing objective, technical information about endocrine disruption and related low-exposure hazards for academicians, policy makers, government employees, community-based and health support groups, public health authorities, physicians, the media, and individuals.
Endocrine Disruption
Her 1988 research on the state of the environment of the
Great Lakes revealed that persistent, man-made chemicals were being transferred from top predator females to their offspring and undermining the construction and programming of their youngsters’ organs before they were born. In light of this evidence, in 1991 she convened 21 international scientists from 17 different disciplines to share their research relevant to trans-generational health impacts.Fact|date=December 2007During that meeting, the term “
endocrine disruption ” was coined; and a book followed in 1992; Chemically Induced Alterations in Sexual and Functional Development: The Wildlife/Human Connection, a collection of technical manuscripts provided by those who attended the session. The information from this volume and numerous subsequent scientific publications on the result of low-dose and/or ambient exposure effects of endocrine disruptors was popularized in her 1996 book, Our Stolen Future, co-authored with Dianne Dumanoski and J. Peterson Myers now published in eighteen languages. Dr. Colborn’s work has prompted the enactment of new laws around the world and redirected the research of academicians, governments, and the private sector.Awards
Among her awards are the: Chatham College Rachel Carson Award, Norwegian International Rachel Carson Prize, United Nations Environment Program Women Leadership for the Environment Award, International Blue Planet Prize, Society of Toxicology and Environmental Chemistry Rachel Carson Award, Center for Science in the Public Interest Rachel Carson Award, Beyond Pesticides Dragonfly Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council for Science and the Environment.
Works
*cite book | author=Colborn, Dr. Theo; Dumanoski, Dianne; Meyers, John Peter | title=Our Stolen Future : How We Are Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence and Survival | publisher=Plume | year=1997 | id=ISBN 0-452-27414-1
References
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/nature/interviews/colborn.html PBS "Frontline"] Interview by Doug Hamilton, 1998.
External links
* [http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/ Our Stolen Future]
* [http://www.endocrinedisruption.org/ TEDX]
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