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Director

Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., A.T.S.
Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., A.T.S. (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/about/od/director/index.cfm)
Director, NIEHS & NTP
Tel (919) 541-3201
Fax (919) 541-2260
birnbaumls@niehs.nih.gov
Biographical Sketch (281KB)
Curriculum Vitae (411KB)
P.O. Box 12233
Mail Drop B2-01
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709
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Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., is Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and National Toxicology Program("/Rhythmyx/assembler/render?sys_contentid=54353&sys_revision=4&sys_variantid=1169&sys_context=0&sys_authtype=0&sys_siteid=&sys_folderid=" sys_dependentvariantid="1169" sys_dependentid="54353" inlinetype="rxhyperlink" rxinlineslot="103" sys_dependentid="54353" sys_siteid="" sys_folderid="") (NTP). As NIEHS and NTP director, Birnbaum oversees a budget of $780 million that funds biomedical research to discover how the environment influences human health and disease. The Institute also supports training, education, technology transfer, and community outreach. NIEHS currently funds more than 1,000 research grants.

 

A board certified toxicologist, Birnbaum has served as a federal scientist for nearly 32 years. Prior to her appointment as NIEHS and NTP Director in 2009, she spent 19 years at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where she directed the largest  division focusing on environmental health research. Birnbaum started her federal career with 10 years at NIEHS, first as a senior staff fellow at the National Toxicology Program, then as a principal investigator and research microbiologist, and finally as a group leader for the Institute’s Chemical Disposition Group.

 

Birnbaum has received many awards and recognitions. In October 2010, she was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health. She was elected to the Collegium Ramazzini, received an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Rochester, and a Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Illinois. Her awards include the Women in Toxicology Elsevier Mentoring Award, the Society of Toxicology Public Communications Award, EPA’s Health Science Achievement Award and Diversity Leadership Award, and 12 Science and Technology Achievement Awards, which reflect the recommendations of EPA’s external Science Advisory Board, for specific publications.

 

Birnbaum is also an active member of the scientific community. She was vice president of the International Union of Toxicology, the umbrella organization for toxicology societies in more than 50 countries; former president of the Society of Toxicology, the largest professional organization of toxicologists in the world; former chair of the Division of Toxicology at the American Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics; and former vice president of the American Aging Association. She is the author of more than 700 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, abstracts, and reports. Birnbaum’s own research focuses on the pharmacokinetic behavior of environmental chemicals; mechanisms of actions of toxicants, including endocrine disruption; and linking of real-world exposures to health effects. She is also an adjunct professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, the Curriculum in Toxicology, and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as in the Integrated Toxicology Program at Duke University.

 

A native of New Jersey, Dr. Birnbaum received her M.S. and Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

 

NIEHS Mission

The mission of the NIEHS is to discover how the environment affects people in order to promote healthier lives. Achieving this mission depends on a set of core values that apply to all activities of the Institute:

 

  • Research excellence (innovation; discovery of new scientific knowledge and technology)
  • Management Excellence; and
  • Community outreach, education, and involvement.

 

At the NIEHS and NTP, we engage in a special form of public service – producing scientific knowledge that promotes individual and public health. Our institute is uniquely positioned to help prevent disease and transform new scientific knowledge into improvements in human health. There are many opportunities before us to build and expand the contributions of the NIEHS:

 

  • Foster research on environmental triggers of disease;
  • Communicate advances in environmental health sciences to the public;
  • Foster training and development of emerging young environmental health scientists and practitioners;
  • Enhance translation of knowledge from research to disease prevention; and
  • Foster safety assessment research on chemicals and other environmental factors.

 

The fulfillment of this mission requires the partnership and effort of everyone in the environmental health sciences communities.

 

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