WORKSHOP PLANNING COMMITTEE

Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D. (Workshop Chair, Neuroscience Forum, Chair), is chief executive officer (CEO) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and executive publisher of its journal, Science. Previously Dr. Leshner had been director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and deputy director and acting director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Before that, he held a variety of senior positions at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr. Leshner began his career at Bucknell University, where he was professor of psychology. Dr. Leshner is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies, and a fellow of AAAS, the National Academy of Public Administration, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was appointed by the U.S. President to the National Science Board, and is a member of the Advisory Committee to the Director of NIH. He received an A.B. in psychology from Franklin and Marshall College and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in physiological psychology from Rutgers University. Dr. Leshner also holds honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Franklin and Marshall College and Pavlov Medical University in St. Peters-burg, Russia.

Duane Alexander, M.D., was named director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in 1986, after serving as the Institute’s acting director. Much of his career has been with NICHD. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Alexander earned his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Following his internship and residency at the Department of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he joined NICHD in 1968 as a clinical associate in the Children’s Diagnostic and Study Branch. Following his tenure with the branch, Dr. Alexander returned to Johns Hopkins as a fellow in pediatrics (developmental disabilities) at the John F. Kennedy Institute for Habilitation of the Mentally and Physically Handicapped Child. He returned to NICHD in 1971, when he became assistant to the scientific director and directed the NICHD National Amniocentesis Study. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Pediatric Society, and the Society for Developmental Pediatrics. For more than a decade, he also served as the U.S. observer on the Steering Committee on Bioethics for the Council of Europe. As an officer in the Public Health Service (PHS), Dr. Alexander has received numerous PHS awards, including a Commendation Medal in 1970, a Meritorious Service Medal, and a Special Recognition Award in 1985. He also received the Surgeon General’s Exemplary Service Medal in 1990, and the Surgeon General’s Medallion in 1993 and 2002. In addition, Dr. Alexander is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, most of which relate to his research in developmental disabilities.

Mark Blaxill is the father of a daughter diagnosed with autism and vice president of SafeMinds. He spent most of his professional career at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he was a senior vice president. While at BCG he was the leader of the firm’s Strategy Practice and led firm initiatives in the area of globalization, open source software, intellectual property, and network analysis. He has wide industry experience, including client assignments in information services, pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics, and retailing. He has worked on a wide range of business problems for CEOs and heads of strategy of Fortune 100 and Dow Jones Index companies. He is writing a book on the subject of intellectual property strategies for business and launching a new business venture. He is a named inventor on BCG’s first patent application. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from Princeton University. He is also the author of several publications on autism, including “What’s Going On? The Question of Time Trends in Autism” (Public Health Reports, 2004); “Reduced Mercury Levels in First Baby Haircuts of Autistic Children” (International Journal of Toxicology, 2003); and “Thimerosal and Autism? A Plausible Hypothesis That Should Not Be Dismissed” (Medical Hypotheses, 2004). He has been a frequent speaker on autism-related issues, including conference presentations for Neurotoxicology (2006), Defeat Autism Now! (2001 Defeat Autism Now! (2006), Autism One (2004, 2005, and 2006), National Autism Association (2005), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (2005), and the IOM Immunization Safety Review (2001).

Laura Bono is a board member, cofounder, and chair emeritus of the National Autism Association (NAA). Along with NIEHS and SafeMinds, she helped to plan and execute the Environmental Factors in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Symposium. She graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.S. in journalism with a minor in marketing. She currently serves as director of marketing for the Parent Institute and has more than 25 years of business experience in marketing. The youngest of her three children has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

Sophia Colamarino, Ph.D., is vice president of research at Autism Speaks. Among her duties, Dr. Colamarino manages and oversees Autism Speaks’ Biology Portfolio and new High Risk/High Impact program. After 16 years of research experience, she joined Cure Autism Now (CAN) in November 2004 as Science Director to oversee the science program in association with the CAN Scientific Review Council. She graduated with dual degrees in biological sciences and psychology from Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. in neurosciences from University of California–San Francisco (UCSF), where she studied brain development with distinguished neuroscientist Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Ph.D. After receiving her Ph.D., she conducted research on the genetic disorder Kallmann Syndrome at the Telethon Institute for Genetics and Medicine in Milan, Italy, led by human geneticist Andrea Ballabio, M.D. She then returned to the United States to work at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA, studying adult neural stem cells and brain regeneration in the laboratory of stem cell pioneer Fred H. Gage, Ph.D. Dr. Colamarino’s research career has included publications in journals such as Cell and Nature. During her tenure at CAN, Dr. Colamarino oversaw a large growth in the science program, expanding the CAN research portfolio from 11 grants in 2004 to 39 in 2006, and developed several important autism initiatives, including the Neuropathology Workgroup, a collaborative effort to understand the cellular and molecular basis of brain enlargement in autism, the first Environmental Innovator Award, and research summit meetings on immunology and neuroimaging.

Eric Fombonne, M.D., is the head of the Division of Child Psychiatry at McGill and director of the Department of Psychiatry at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, where he has expanded autism services. He worked at INSERM in France and at the London Institute of Psychiatry in England, and he is now holder of a Canada Research Chair. He has been involved in numerous epidemiological studies of autism and is considered to be a leading authority on this topic, and also on the putative links between autism and immunization. He has also been involved in the development of assessment tools for clinical and research purposes, in family and genetic studies of autism, and in outcome studies. He has a long track record of scientific/research leadership—including serving as a consultant for the National Academies, the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics, the MRC (United Kingdom), and the M.I.N.D. Institute (University of California–Davis)—on research matters related to autism. He has been associate editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders since 1994 and is on the editorial board of several other scientific journals. He is on the board of several family associations, with which he has worked closely over the years.

Steve Hyman, M.D., is provost of Harvard University and professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. From 1996 to 2001, he served as director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Earlier, Dr. Hyman was professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, director of psychiatry research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and the first faculty director of Harvard University’s Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative. In the laboratory he studied the regulation of gene expression by neurotransmitters, especially dopamine, and by drugs that influence dopamine systems. This research was aimed at understanding addiction and the action of therapeutic psychotropic drugs. Dr. Hyman is a member of the IOM, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He is editor-in-chief of the Annual Review of Neuroscience. He has received awards for public service from the U.S. government and from patient advocacy groups such as the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and the National Mental Health Association. Dr. Hyman received his B.A. from Yale College and an M.A. from the University of Cambridge, which he attended as a Mellon fellow studying the history and philosophy of science. He earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Judy Illes, Ph.D., is professor of neurology and Canada Research Chair in Neuroethics, National Core for Neuroethics at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Illes received her doctorate in hearing and speech sciences from Stanford University in 1987, with a specialization in experimental neuropsychology. Dr. Illes returned to Stanford University in 1991 to help build the research enterprise in imaging sciences in the Department of Radiology. She also cofounded the Stanford Brain Research Center (now the Neuroscience Institute at Stanford), and served as its first executive director between 1998 and 2001. Today, Dr. Illes directs a strong research team devoted to neuroethics, and issues specifically at the intersection of medical imaging and biomedical ethics. Dr. Illes has written numerous books and edited volumes and articles. She is the author of The Strategic Grant Seeker: Conceptualizing Fundable Research in the Brain and Behavioral Sciences (1999, LEA Publishers, NJ), special guest editor of “Emerging Ethical Challenges in MR Imaging,” Topics of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (2002), and “Ethical Challenges in Advanced Neuroimaging,” Brain and Cognition (2002). Her latest book, Neuroethics: Defining the Issues in Theory, Practice and Policy, was published by Oxford University Press in January 2006. Dr. Illes is co-chair of the Committee on Women in Neuroscience for the Society for Neuroscience; a member of the Internal Advisory Board for the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; and a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives.

Thomas R. Insel, M.D., is director of the National Institute of Mental Health. He graduated from Boston University, where he received a B.A. from the College of Liberal Arts and an M.D. He did his internship at Berkshire Medical Center, Pittsfield, MA, and his residency at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCSF. Dr. Insel joined NIMH in 1979, where he served in various scientific research positions until 1994, when he went to Emory University as professor, Department of Psychiatry, Emory University School of Medicine, and director of the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center. As director of Yerkes, Dr. Insel built one of the nation’s leading HIV vaccine research programs. He also served as the founding director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, a Science and Technology Center funded by NSF to develop an interdisciplinary consortium for research and education at eight Atlanta colleges and universities. Dr. Insel’s scientific interests have ranged from clinical studies of obsessive-compulsive disorder to explorations of the molecular basis of social behaviors in rodents and nonhuman primates. His research on oxytocin and affiliative behaviors helped to launch the field of social neuroscience. He oversees NIMH’s $1.4 billion research budget, which provides support to investigators at universities in the areas of basic science; clinical research, including large-scale trials of new treatments; and studies on the organization and delivery of mental health services.

David A. Schwartz, M.D., is the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Toxicology Program at NIH. Prior to this appointment, he served on the faculty at the University of Iowa (1988–2000) and Duke University (2000–2005). At Duke University, Dr. Schwartz served as the director of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine and vice chair for research in the Department of Medicine. In this capacity, Dr. Schwartz established three NIH Centers: a center focusing on Environmental Genomics, a Program Project in Environmental Asthma, and an Environmental Health Sciences Research Center. Dr. Schwartz has focused his research on the genetic and biological determinants of environmental and occupational lung disease. These research efforts have provided new insights into the pathophysiology and biology of asbestos-induced lung disease, interstitial lung disease, environmental airway disease, and innate immunity. This research has identified endotoxin or lipopolysaccharide as an important cause of airway disease among those exposed to organic dusts, and determined that a specific mutation in the Toll-4 gene is associated with a diminished airway response to inhaled LPS in humans. Recent work is focusing on the genes that regulate the innate immune response in humans, genes involved in the fibroproliferative response in the lung, and the genetic regulation of environmental asthma. Dr. Schwartz has served on numerous study sections and editorial boards, is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, and was awarded the Scientific Accomplishment Award from the American Thoracic Society in 2003.

Alison Tepper Singer is executive vice president, awareness and communications, for Autism Speaks. Ms. Singer has been with the foundation since its launch in March 2005 and is a staff-liaison to the board of directors, in addition to overseeing the strategic communications and development of the growing organization. She served as interim CEO of the organization from March through July 2005. Prior to joining Autism Speaks, Ms. Singer spent 14 years at CNBC and NBC in a variety of positions. From 1994 to 1999, she served as vice president of programming in NBC’s Cable and Business Development division. Most recently at CNBC, in her role as special projects producer, Ms. Singer produced the award-winning series “Autism: Paying the Price.” She has a B.A. in economics from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Alison has a daughter and an older brother with autism.

Susan Swedo, M.D., received her B.A. from Augustana College and her M.D. from Southern Illinois University. Shortly after completing a residency in pediatrics at Northwestern University, Dr. Swedo was named chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the university. The following year, she moved to Washington, DC, and became a senior staff fellow in the Child Psychiatry Branch, NIMH. Dr. Swedo was granted tenure in 1992, became head of the Section on Behavioral Pediatrics in 1994, and chief of the Pediatrics and Developmental Neuropsychiatry Branch in 1998. She also served as the acting scientific director for NIMH from 1995 through 1998. Dr. Swedo recently received the Joel Elkes International Research Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Her laboratory studies include childhood-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder and related disorders, including Tourette syndrome and Sydenham chorea.

Christian G. Zimmerman, M.D., FACS, M.B.A., is chair and founder of the Idaho Neurological Institute (INI), adjunct professor of psychology at Boise State University, past CEO of Neuroscience Associates, and former board member for the Idaho State Board of Health and Welfare. Dr. Zimmerman established the INI research facility to focus on nervous system injury, repair, and neuroplasticity; leads its various interdisciplinary research teams; and is coprofessor for biology and cognitive neuroscience research students trained at the facility. Research projects include a 20-year longitudinal study of traumatic brain injury; investigations of spinal injury, stroke, aneurysms, arterial thrombolytic therapy intervention, neuropathology, central nervous system (CNS) tumors, sleep disorders, deep-brain stimulation, and movement disorders; and five Tele-medicine and Advanced Technologies Research Center (TATRC) grants. In his role as INI chair, he has facilitated numerous symposia and workshops to provide educational opportunities for medical professionals and the public. Additionally, he chairs prevention programs for Idaho’s youth such as Think First. Dr. Zimmerman is a diplomate of the American Board of Neurological Surgery and Pain Management and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and Physician Executives. He received his M.B.A. from Auburn University, and his M.D. from the University of Maryland.

FORUM MEMBERS

Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D. (Chair), biography in Workshop Planning Committee.

Huda Akil, Ph.D., is the Gardner Quarton Distinguished University Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at the University of Michigan, and the codirector of the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute. Dr. Akil has made seminal contributions to the understanding of the neurobiology of emotions, including pain, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. Early on, she focused on the role of the endorphins and their receptors in pain and stress responsiveness. Dr. Akil’s scientific contributions have been recognized with numerous honors and awards. These include the Pacesetter Award from NIDA in 1993, and with Dr. Stanley Watson, the Pasarow Award for Neuroscience Research in 1994. In 1998, she received the Sachar Award from Columbia University and the Bristol Myers Squibb Unrestricted Research Funds Award. Dr. Akil is past president of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (1998) and past president of the Society for Neuroscience (2004), the largest neuroscience organization in the world. She was elected as a fellow of AAAS in 2000. In 1994, she was elected to be a member of the IOM and is currently a member of its Council. In 2004, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Akil received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Marc Barlow joined the strategic marketing group in GE Healthcare as leader of the neuroscience area in 2005. In this role he is responsible for the development and delivery of disease area strategies for CNS. Before joining GE Mr. Barlow was the marketing director of Sanofi-Aventis in the United Kingdom. Prior to this he held a number of senior sales and marketing positions within the pharmaceutical industry, both domestically in the United Kingdom and internationally based out of the United States and Switzerland. A large amount of Mr. Barlow’s experience has been in the neuroscience area, in particular in epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, and stroke. Mr. Barlow graduated from the University of Wolver-hampton with a focus in biological sciences and the Chartered Institute of Marketing with a diploma in marketing studies.

Dennis W. Choi, M.D., Ph.D., graduated from Harvard College and received an M.D. and a Ph.D. (the latter in pharmacology) from Harvard University and the Harvard–Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Program in Health Sciences and Technology. After completing residency and fellowship training in neurology at Harvard, he joined the faculty at Stanford University and began research into the mechanisms underlying pathological neuronal death. In 1991 he joined Washington University Medical School as head of the Neurology Department; there he also established the Center for the Study of Nervous System Injury, and directed the McDonnell Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology. From 2001 until 2006, he was executive vice president for neuroscience at Merck Research Labs. Dr. Choi is currently executive director of the Comprehensive Neurosciences Initiative at Emory University. He is a fellow of AAAS, and a member of the IOM, the Executive Committee of the Dana Alliance for Brain Research Initiative, and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He has served as president of the Society for Neuroscience, vice president of the American Neurological Association, and chair of the U.S./Canada Regional Committee of the International Brain Research Organization. He has also served on the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Life Sciences, and Councils for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Society for Neuroscience, the Winter Conference for Brain Research, the International Society for Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, and the Neurotrauma Society. He has been a member of advisory boards for the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, the Hereditary Disease Foundation, the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, the Queen’s Neuroscience Institute in Honolulu, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as for several university-based research consortia, biotechnology companies, and pharmaceutical companies.

Timothy Coetzee, Ph.D., is the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s vice president for discovery partnerships. In this capacity, Dr. Coetzee is responsible for the Society’s strategic funding of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies as well as partnerships with the financial and business communities. Dr. Coetzee received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from Albany Medical College and has been involved with multiple sclerosis (MS) research since then. He was a research fellow in the laboratory of society grantee Dr. Brian Popko at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, and was the recipient of one of the society’s Advanced Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards. After completing his training with Dr. Popko, Dr. Coetzee joined the faculty of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, where he conducted research that applied new technologies to understand how myelin is formed in the nervous system. He is the author of a number of research publications on the structure and function of myelin. Dr. Coetzee joined the society Home Office staff in fall 2000.

David H. Cohen, Ph.D., is a professor of psychiatry and biological sciences at Columbia University, where served as vice president and dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1995 to 2003. Prior to joining Columbia, he served as vice president for research and dean of the graduate school and subsequently as provost at Northwestern University. He has held professorships in physiology and/or neuroscience at Northwestern, State University of New York (SUNY)–Stony Brook, University of Virginia School of Medicine, and Case Western University School of Medicine. Dr. Cohen has held various elected offices in national and international organizations, including president of the Society for Neuroscience and chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges. He has served on various boards, including Argonne National Laboratory, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Zenith Electronics, and Columbia University Press. He has also served on numerous advisory committees for various organizations, including NIH, NSF, Department of Defense, and National Academies. Dr. Cohen received his B.A. from Harvard University and Ph.D. from the University of California–Berkeley, and was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA).

Richard Frank, M.D., Ph.D., is the Vice President of Medical and Clinical Strategy for GE Healthcare. He has two decades of experience designing and implementing clinical trials in the pharmaceutical industry, and built the Experimental Medicine Department at Pharmacia before joining GE Healthcare in 2005. He is a past president and founding director of the Society of Non-invasive Imaging in Drug Development and a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, Royal College of Physicians. He serves on the scientific review board for the Institute for the Study of Aging and is a member of the editorial board of Molecular Imaging and Biology. Dr. Frank earned M.D. and Ph.D. (pharmacology) degrees concurrently and joined the pharmaceutical industry upon completion of his clinical training in 1985.

Richard Hodes, M.D., is the director of the National Institute of Aging at NIH. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine. In 1995 Dr. Hodes was elected as a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives; in 1997 he was elected as a fellow of AAAS; and in 1999 he was elected to membership in the IOM. He also maintains an active involvement in research at NIH through his direction of the Immune Regulation Section, a laboratory devoted to studying regulation of the immune system, focused on cellular and molecular events that activate the immune response. In the past Dr. Hodes acted as a clinical investigator at the National Cancer Institute, then as the deputy chief and acting chief of the Cancer Institute’s Immunology Branch. Since 1982 he has served as program coordinator for the U.S.–Japan Cooperative Cancer Research Program, and since 1992 on the scientific advisory board of the Cancer Research Institute. Dr. Hodes received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed a research fellowship at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and clinical training in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Steve Hyman, M.D., biography in Workshop Planning Committee.

Judy Illes, Ph.D., biography in Workshop Planning Committee.

Thomas R. Insel, M.D., biography in Workshop Planning Committee.

Story C. Landis, Ph.D., has been director of the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) since 2003. Dr. Landis oversees an annual budget of $1.5 billion and a staff of more than 900 scientists, physician-scientists, and administrators. The institute supports research by investigators in public and private institutions across the country, as well as by scientists working in its intramural laboratories and branches in Bethesda, MD. Since 1950, the institute has been at the forefront of U.S. efforts in brain research. Dr. Landis joined NINDS in 1995 as scientific director and worked with then-institute director Zach W. Hall, Ph.D., to coordinate and reengineer the Institute’s intramural research programs. Between 1999 and 2000, under the leadership of NINDS director Gerald D. Fischbach, M.D., she led the movement, together with NIMH scientific director Robert Desimone, Ph.D., to bring a sense of unity and common purpose to 200 laboratories from 11 different NIH Institutes, all of which conduct leading-edge clinical and basic neuroscience research. Dr. Landis received her undergraduate degree in biology from Wellesley College and her master’s and Ph.D. from Harvard University. After postdoctoral work at Harvard University studying transmitter plasticity in sympathetic neurons, she served on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School Department of Neurobiology. In 1985 she joined the faculty of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, where she held many academic positions, including chair of the Department of Neurosciences, which she was instrumental in establishing. Dr. Landis has made many fundamental contributions to the understanding of developmental interactions required for synapse formation. She has garnered many honors and awards and is an elected fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, AAAS, and the American Neurological Association.

Ting Kai (TK) Li, M.D., earned his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and his M.D. from Harvard University, and completed his residency training at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, where he was named chief medical resident. He also conducted research at the Nobel Medical Research and Karolinska Institutes in Stockholm and served as deputy director of the Department of Biochemistry within the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Dr. Li joined the faculty at Indiana University as professor of medicine and biochemistry in 1971. Subsequently he was named the school’s John B. Hickam Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and later distinguished professor of medicine. In 1985 he became director of the Indiana Alcohol Research Center at the Indiana University School of Medicine, where he was also associate dean for research. Dr. Li is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his scientific accomplishments, including the Jellinek Award, the James B. Isaacson Award for Research in Chemical Dependency Diseases, and the R. Brinkley Smithers Distinguished Science Award. Dr. Li has also served in many prominent leadership and advisory positions, including past president of the Research Society on Alcoholism and as a member of the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Advisory Committee to the Director, NIH. Dr. Li was elected to membership in the IOM in 1999 and is an honorary fellow of the United Kingdom’s Society for the Study of Addiction.

Michael D. Oberdorfer, Ph.D., is the director of the Strabismus, Amblyopia and Visual Processing, and Low Vision and Blindness Rehabilitation Programs at the National Eye Institute of NIH. He is involved in a number of trans-NIH initiatives and activities in neuroscience and other areas, including the Coordinating Committee of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research. Before coming to NIH, he was a program officer at NSF, where he was involved in a number of activities, including directing the Developmental Neuroscience Program. Prior to that he was on the faculty of the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. He received his B.A. at Rockford College and his Ph.D. in zoology and neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Kathie L. Olsen, Ph.D., became deputy director of NSF in 2005. She joined NSF from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President, where she was the associate director and deputy director for science. Prior to the OSTP post, she served as the chief scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and as the acting associate administrator for the new Enterprise in Biological and Physical Research. Before joining NASA in 1999, Dr. Olsen was the senior staff associate for the Science and Technology Centers in the NSF Office of Integrative Activities. From 1996 to 1997, she was a Brookings Institute legislative fellow and then an NSF detail in the Office of Senator Conrad Burns of Montana. Before her work on Capitol Hill, she served for 2 years as acting deputy director for the Division of Integrative Biology and Neuroscience at NSF. Dr. Olsen received her B.S. from Chatham College, majoring in both biology and psychology. She earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of California–Irvine. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neuroscience at Children’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School. Subsequently at SUNY–Stony Brook, she was both a research scientist at Long Island Research Institute and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Medical School. Her research on neural and genetic mechanisms underlying development and expression of behavior was supported by NIH. Her awards include the NSF Director’s Superior Accomplishment Award; the International Behavioral Neuro-science Society Award; the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Award for outstanding contributions in research and education; the Barnard Medal of Distinction, the college’s most significant recognition of individuals for demonstrated excellence in conduct of their lives and careers; and NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal.

Atul C. Pande, M.D., is senior vice president, Neurosciences MDC at GlaxoSmithKline. Previously he was the chief medical officer for Cenerx Biopharma. He has also served as vice president, GPM as well as vice president, neurosciences, for Pfizer Inc. Dr. Pande has extensive IND, NDA, and MAA experience in the areas of anxiety, depression, epilepsy, neuropathic pain, schizophrenia, traumatic brain injury, and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Steven Marc Paul, M.D., has been executive vice president of science and technology and president of the Lilly Research Laboratories (LRL) of Eli Lilly and Company since 2003. Dr. Paul joined Lilly in 1993 as a vice president of LRL responsible for central nervous system discovery and decision phase medical research. In 1996, Dr. Paul was appointed vice president (and in 1998 group vice president) of therapeutic area discovery research and clinical investigation. In this position his responsibilities included all therapeutic area discovery research, medicinal chemistry, toxicology/drug disposition, and decision phase (phase I/II) medical research. He and his leadership team were responsible for meeting the pipeline performance objectives of LRL and improving research and development (R&D) productivity, especially in discovery and the early phases of clinical development. In 2005, Dr. Paul was named Chief Scientific Officer of the Year as one of the Annual Pharmaceutical Achievement Awards. Prior to assuming his position at Lilly, Dr. Paul served as scientific director of NIMH. Dr. Paul received his B.A. in biology and psychology from Tulane University. He received his M.S. in anatomy (neuroanatomy) and his M.D. from Tulane University School of Medicine. Following an internship in neurology at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, he served as a resident in psychiatry and an instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Paul also served as medical director in the Commissioned Corps of PHS, and maintained a private practice in psychiatry and psychopharmacology. He is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and has been elected a fellow in the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), served on the ACNP Council, and was elected president of ACNP (1999). He also serves on the executive board of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America’s Science and Regulatory Committee and is incoming chairperson. Dr. Paul was appointed by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to serve as a member of the Advisory Committee to the Director of NIH (2001–2006).

William Z. Potter, M.D., Ph.D., is vice president, Franchise Integrator Neuroscience, at Merck Research Laboratories. Prior to joining Merck, he served as the executive director and Lilly Clinical Research Fellow of the Neuroscience Therapeutic Area at Lilly Research Laboratories. He developed a Lilly/IU fellowship early in 1996 and was named professor of psychiatry at IUMC. Before being associated with Lilly Research Laboratories, he held the position of chief, Section on Clinical Pharmacology, Intramural Research Program at NIMH. He had been with PHS and NIH since 1971. He has authored more than 200 publications in the field of preclinical and clinical pharmacology, mostly focused on drugs used in affective illnesses and methods for evaluating drug effects in humans. He has received many honors during his career. Some of those include the 1975–1977 Falk Fellow, American Psychiatric Association; 1986 Meritorious Service Medal, PHS; and 1990 St. Elizabeth’s Residency Program Alumnus of the Year Award.

Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., became director of the National Eye Institute, NIH, in 2001. He came from the University of Michigan Medical School, where he was the Paul R. Lichter Professor of Ophthalmic Genetics and was the founding director of the Center for Retinal and Macular Degeneration in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. Dr. Sieving served as vice chair for clinical research for the Foundation Fighting Blindness from 1996 to 2001. He is on the Bressler Vision Award Committee and serves on the jury for the annual $1 million Award for Vision Research of the Champalimaud Foundation, Portugal. He was elected to membership in the American Ophthalmological Society in 1993 and the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis in 2005. He received an honorary Doctor of Science from Valparaiso University in 2003 and was named as one of the Best Doctors in America in 1998, 2001, and 2005. Dr. Sieving has received a number of awards, including the RPB Senior Scientific Investigator Award, 1998; the Alcon Award, Alcon Research Institute, 2000; and the 2005 Pisart Vision Award from the New York Lighthouse International for the Blind. In 2006, Dr. Sieving was elected to the IOM.

Rae Silver, Ph.D., is the Helene L. and Mark N. Kaplan Professor of Natural and Physical Sciences and holds joint appointments at Barnard College and Columbia University. Dr. Silver is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association of Arts and Sciences. She has participated extensively in scientific and educational activities, including serving as chair for NASA’s Research Maximization and Prioritization Committee reviewing Scientific Priorities for the International Space Station; Society for Neuroscience Program committee (Theme E: Autonomic and Limbic System); chair, External Advisory Committee, NSF Center for the Study of Biological Rhythms at the University of Virginia; search committee for editor of journals, department chairs, and provost at various institutions; and panel member of a number of committees. As senior advisor at the National Science Foundation, she worked with NSF staffers in all the scientific directorates to create a series of workshops to examine opportunities for the next decade in making advances in neuroscience through the joint efforts of biologists, chemists, educators, mathematicians, physicists, psychologists, and statisticians. Dr. Silver’s studies of the biological clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the brain were the first to conclusively demonstrate that this brain tissue can be readily transplanted and restore function at a very high success rate in an animal model. The laboratory is renowned for analysis of the input, output, and intraneuronal circuits underlying the function of the brain’s master clock. A second line of research entails the study of mast cells (renowned for their role in producing allergic reactions) in modulating brain function and as a major source of brain histamine. The research has been supported without interruption by NIH and NSF and others. Dr. Silver is deeply committed to educating undergraduate and graduate students, both at the national and institutional levels and in the hands-on context of the laboratory.

William H. Thies, Ph.D., is vice president for medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer’s Association, where he oversees the world’s largest private, nonprofit Alzheimer’s disease research grants program. Under his direction, the organization’s annual grant budget has doubled, and the program has designated special focus areas targeting the relationships among cardiovascular risk factors and Alzheimer’s disease, care-giving and care systems, and research involving diverse populations. He played a key role in launching Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, and in establishing the Research Roundtable, a consortium of senior scientists from industry, academia, and government who convene regularly to explore common barriers to drug discovery. In previous work at the American Heart Association (AHA) from 1988 to 1998, Dr. Thies formed a new stroke division that recently became the American Stroke Association. He also built the Emergency Cardiac Care Program, a continuing medical education program that trains more than 3 million professionals annually. He has worked with NINDS to form the Brain Attack Coalition. Prior to joining AHA, he held faculty positions at Indiana University in Bloomington and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Thies earned a B.A. in biology from Lake Forest College, and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Roy E. Twyman, M.D., is vice president, Franchise Development, in the Central Nervous System/Pain Area of Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development. In this position, he oversees licensing and acquisition efforts for neurology, psychiatry, and pain franchises while coordinating strategic activities for CNS discovery optimization, early human studies and proof of concept, new technologies, and cross-company projects. Additional oversight includes the pharmacogenomics and neuroimaging teams that support broad-based pharma R&D across all therapeutic areas. Before his work at Johnson and Johnson, Dr. Twyman was on faculty at the University of Utah and the University of Michigan. Dr. Twyman received his B.S. from Purdue University in Electrical Engineering. He earned his M.D. from the University of Kentucky and completed a neurology residency at University of Michigan.

Nora D. Volkow, M.D., became director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in 2003. Dr. Volkow came to NIDA from Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), where she held concurrent positions, including associate director for life sciences, director of nuclear medicine, and director of the NIDA–Department of Energy Regional Neuroimaging Center. In addition, Dr. Volkow was a professor in the department of psychiatry and associate dean of the medical school at SUNY–Stony Brook. Dr. Volkow brings to NIDA a long record of accomplishments in drug addiction research. She is a recognized expert on the brain’s dopamine system, with research focusing on the brains of addicted, obese, and aging individuals. Her studies have documented changes in the dopamine system affecting the actions of frontal brain regions involved with motivation, drive, and pleasure and the decline of brain dopamine function with age. Her work includes more than 350 peer-reviewed publications, 3 edited books, and more than 50 book chapters and non-peer reviewed manuscripts. The recipient of multiple awards, she was elected to membership in the IOM and was named “Innovator of the Year” in 2000 by U.S. News and World Report. Dr. Volkow received her B.A. from Modern American School, Mexico City, Mexico; her M.D. from the National University of Mexico, Mexico City; and her postdoctoral training in psychiatry at New York University. In addition to BNL and SUNY–Stony Brook, Dr. Volkow has worked at the University of Texas Medical School and Sainte Anne Psychiatric Hospital in Paris, France.

Christian G. Zimmerman, M.D., FACS, M.B.A., biography in Workshop Planning Committee.

Stevin H. Zorn, Ph.D., is vice president and head of Central Nervous System Disorders Research at Pfizer Global Research and Development, and also coleads Pfizer’s CNS Therapeutic Area Leadership Team. He received a B.S. in chemistry from Lafayette College, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences with an emphasis on toxicology and neuropharmacology, respectively. Dr. Zorn conducted postdoctoral research studies in Paul Greengard’s Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University before joining Pfizer in 1989. Dr. Zorn has coauthored numerous scientific research communications and patents and has contributed to the advancement of a wide variety of drug candidates, some of which are now helping to improve the lives of patients suffering from CNS-related illness.

INVITED SPEAKERS

Arthur Beaudet, M.D., received a B.S. in biology from College of the Holy Cross and an M.D. from Yale. He then did 2 years of pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins and spent 2 years as a research associate at NIH before going to Baylor College of Medicine in 1971, where he remains. Dr. Beaudet has published more than 200 original research articles in diverse aspects of mammalian genetics. His contributions included the demonstration of mutations in cultured somatic cells in the 1970s, a time when such evidence was still considered novel. He published extensively on inborn errors of metabolism, particularly on urea cycle disorders. His group was the first to describe uniparental disomy in humans in 1988. He has longstanding interests in somatic gene therapy and in cystic fibrosis. More recently his major focus has been on genomic imprinting as it relates to Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes, including identification of the gene causing Angelman syndrome. Dr. Beaudet is well known as one of the editors of the Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease tome for the 6th through 8th editions, and he has served on many editorial boards and national review panels. He was president of the American Society of Human Genetics in 1998 and is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the IOM. Dr. Beaudet is currently the Henry and Emma Meyer Distinguished Service Professor and chair in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Sallie Bernard is a cofounder and the executive director of SafeMinds. She serves as the chair of the board of directors of Cure Autism Now, one of the largest funders of biomedical research for autism. She was formerly executive director of the New Jersey Chapter of Cure Autism Now, helping to secure millions of dollars in funding from the state of New Jersey for autism research and treatment. She was also a member of the Founders Forum for the Autism Center at UMDNJ in New Jersey. Ms. Bernard has testified before Congress as well as made a presentation to the IOM. She has published a number of research papers and letters in science journals, and participates in several government committees addressing the effect of mercury on neurodevelopment. Ms. Bernard is a cofounder and president of Extreme Sports Camp, a nonprofit summer camp for older children and teenagers with autism. She is the founder and former president of ARC Research, a full-service market research and marketing consulting firm that she sold in 2004. She graduated from Radcliffe College, Harvard University. One of her children has autism.

Laura Bono, biography in Workshop Planning Committee.

Henry Falk, M.D., serves as director, Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention (CCEHIP), one of four Coordinating Centers at CDC. CCEHIP includes the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR) and the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Prior to this, he served as director for both NCEH and ATSDR. Dr. Falk is also a member of the Executive Leadership Board of CDC, where he arrived in 1972. He is a 30-year veteran of the PHS Commissioned Corps. This service culminated with his being named Rear Admiral and Assistant U.S. Surgeon General. Dr. Falk earned his M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He received a master’s degree from Harvard School of Public Health, and he is board certified in pediatrics as well as public health and general preventive medicine. His honors include the Vernon Houk Award for Leadership in Preventing Childhood Lead Poisoning and the Homer C. Calver Award in environmental health from the American Public Health Association. He has also received CDC’s William C. Watson Jr. Medal of Excellence, as well as PHS’s Distinguished Service Award.

Gary W. Goldstein, M.D., is chair of the Autism Speaks scientific affairs committee, and president and CEO of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, one of the nation’s leading treatment centers for autism and other developmental disorders. He is also a professor of neurology and pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Medicine and a professor of environmental health sciences at the University’s School of Hygiene and Public Health. One of the leading researchers of neurological functions and defects, Dr. Goldstein has helped gain international recognition for the Kennedy Krieger Institute through his studies of children with a wide range of disabilities, from rare genetic disorders to common learning problems. More than 10,000 children with disabilities visit the Kennedy Krieger Institute every year.

Martha Herbert, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, a pediatric neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and at the Center for Child and Adolescent Development of Cambridge Health Alliance, a member of the MGH Center for Morphometric Analysis, and an affiliate of the Harvard–MIT–MGH Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. She earned her medical degree at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Prior to her medical training, she obtained a doctoral degree at the University of California–Santa Cruz, studying evolution and development of learning processes in biology and culture in the History of Consciousness program, and then did postdoctoral work in the philosophy and history of science. She trained in pediatrics at Cornell University Medical Center, and in neurology and child neurology at MGH, where she has remained. She received the first Cure Autism Now Innovator Award; she is the co-chair of the Environmental Health Advisory Board of the Autism Society of America. Her research program utilizes multimodal brain imaging techniques, including MRI, EEG, and MEG, in coordination with clinical observation, metabolic biomarkers, and animal studies, to study the physiological underpinnings of autism, aiming toward understanding what makes some autistic brains unusually large, what causes altered brain connectivity, how we can develop measures sensitive to changes in brain function that could result from treatment interventions, and what might be potential domains of plasticity and targets for intervention.

Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Ph.D., M.P.H., received her B.A. in mathematics, M.A. in biostatistics, and Ph.D./M.P.H. in epidemiology from the University of California–Berkeley. After 12 years on the faculty at University of North Carolina (UNC)–Chapel Hill, she returned to California to join the University of California–Davis Department of Public Health Sciences (formerly the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine). Her research interests are in environmental exposures (metals, pesticides, PCBs, air pollution), pregnancy outcomes (spontaneous abortion, fetal growth, early child development), and epidemiologic methods (left truncation in survival analysis, the “healthy worker survivor bias,” timing issues, and use of epidemiologic data in quantitative risk assessment). She authored the chapter “Environmental Epidemiology” in the textbook Modern Epidemiology (Rothman and Greenland, and currently serves on editorial boards for the American Journal of Epidemiology, Environmental Health Perspectives, and Epidemiology, as well as on scientific advisory boards for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Previously she served on the Governor’s Carcinogen Identification Committee for the state of California, the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Toxicology Program, and the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Autism Research. Dr. Hertz-Picciotto chaired the IOM Committee on the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Agent Orange and Other Herbicides in 2000 and 2002. She directed the program in reproductive epidemiology at UNC–Chapel Hill and is the deputy director of the Center for Children’s Environmental Health at UC–Davis, focused on autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Thomas R. Insel, M.D., biography in Workshop Planning Committee.

S. Jill James, Ph.D., is a research biochemist with more than 25 years of experience studying metabolic biomarkers of disease susceptibility. She received her B.S. in biology from Mills College in Oakland, CA, and her Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry from UCLA. She is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and director of the Autism Metabolic Genomics Laboratory at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Before transferring to the University, she was a senior research scientist at the FDA National Center for Toxicological Research, where she directed a laboratory focused on DNA methylation and cancer susceptibility. Her research career has been focused on defining gene–environment interactions that increase susceptibility to cancer, Down syndrome, and most recently, autism. She has published more than 120 peer-reviewed papers and recently received the American Society for Nutritional Sciences award for innovative research in the understanding of human nutrition.

Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., is a pediatrician, epidemiologist, and internationally recognized leader in public health and preventive medicine. He has been a member of the faculty of Mount Sinai School of Medicine since 1985 and chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine since 1990. Dr. Landrigan graduated from Harvard Medical School. In 1977, he received a Diploma of Industrial Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He completed a residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital. He then served for 15 years as an epidemic intelligence service officer and medical epidemiologist at CDC and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. In 1987, Dr. Landrigan was elected as a member of the IOM. He is editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine and previously was editor of Environmental Research. He has chaired committees at the National Academy of Sciences on Environmental Neurotoxicology and on Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children. The NAS report that he directed on pesticides and children’s health was instrumental in securing passage of the Food Quality Protection Act, the major federal pesticide law in the United States. From 1995 to 1997, Dr. Landrigan served on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veteran’s Illnesses. In 1997–1998, he served as senior advisor on children’s health to the EPA administrator and was instrumental in helping to establish a new Office of Children’s Health Protection at EPA. From 2000 to 2002, Dr. Landrigan served on the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board. He served from 1996 to 2005 in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Naval Reserve. He continues to serve as deputy command surgeon general of the New York Naval Militia. Dr. Landrigan is known for his many decades of work in protecting children against environmental threats to health, most notably lead and pesticides. He has been a leader in developing the National Children’s Study, the largest study of children’s health and the environment ever launched in the United States. He has been centrally involved in the medical and epidemiologic studies that followed the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Pat Levitt, Ph.D., received his Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of California–San Diego. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at Yale University School of Medicine. He was named a McKnight Foundation Scholar in 2002. Dr. Levitt also is an elected fellow of AAAS and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Cure Autism Now. Dr. Levitt is a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, and the National Advisory Mental Health Council for NIMH. Dr. Levitt’s research interests are in the development of brain circuits that control learning and emotion. His clinical genetics and basic research studies focus on understanding the basis of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, and how genes and the environment together influence typical and atypical development. He has received a number of research grants from NIH, the McKnight Endowment Fund, the Joseph and Esther Klingenstein Foundation, the March of Dimes, and other foundations. Dr. Levitt serves on the editorial boards of Biological Psychiatry, Cerebral Cortex, and Neuron, and he was senior editor for the Journal of Neuroscience. He is the author or coauthor of more than 170 scientific papers. Dr. Levitt is a frequently invited speaker at national and international seminars and conferences, as well as public education and policy forums that promote the health and education of children.

Ian Lipkin, M.D., is professor of epidemiology in the Mailman School of Public Health, and director of the Columbia Center for Infection and Immunity. Through June 2002 Dr. Lipkin also held academic positions at the University of California–Irvine. He is internationally recognized as an authority on the use of molecular biological methods for pathogen discovery and the role of immune and microbial factors in neurologic and neuropsychiatric diseases. Dr. Lipkin received a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied cultural anthropology, philosophy, and literature, and an M.D. from Rush Medical College. His postgraduate training included clerkship at the Queen Square Institute of Neurology in London; internship in medicine at the University of Pittsburgh; residency in internal medicine at the University of Washington; residency in neurology at UCSF; and fellowship in neurovirology and molecular neurobiology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. His honors include National Multiple Sclerosis Society Postdoctoral Fellowship; Clinical Investigator Development Award, NIH, National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke; Pew Scholar; Louise Turner Arnold Chair in the Neurosciences; and Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar in Global Infectious Diseases.

Fernando D. Martinez, M.D., is director of the Arizona Respiratory Center and Swift-McNear Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Arizona in Tucson. His major research interests include the natural history of childhood asthma, the genetic epidemiology of asthma and related conditions, and the early development of the immune system as a risk factor for the development of asthma. Dr. Martinez is the director of one of five centers participating in the Childhood Asthma Research and Education Network, a national effort funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. He is also the recipient of two other current NIH grants. Dr. Martinez is an associate editor of Thorax and is a reviewer for various journals, including Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and European Respiratory Journal. He has written more than 150 journal articles, book chapters, editorials, and abstracts, and he has been an invited lecturer at numerous national and international conferences. Dr. Martinez received a medical license (equivalent to an M.D.) from the University of Chile in Santiago. He then completed a medical degree and a fellowship in pediatrics with a specialization in pulmonology at the University of Rome in Rome, Italy.

Larry L. Needham, Ph.D., is chief of the Organic Analytical Toxicology Branch of the National Center for Environmental Health, CDC. He has served at CDC for more than 30 years in the area of assessing human exposure to environmental chemicals through biomonitoring. Dr. Needham has authored or coauthored about 400 publications in this area, with special emphasis on polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, furans, and biphenyls; pesticides; phthalates; perfluorinated chemicals; volatile organic chemicals; and inorganic elements. Dr. Needham has received many awards, including PHS’s Special Recognition and Superior Service Award; CDC’s honor award for outstanding scientific leadership; and in 2006 the International Society of Exposure Analysis’s (ISEA’s) most prestigious award, the Wesolowski Award, for his biomonitoring work. Dr. Needham serves on advisory boards for many scientific organizations and studies. In addition, he is a past president of ISEA, editor of Chemosphere: Dioxins and Persistent Organic Pollutants, and federal co-chair of the exposure workgroup for planning for the National Children’s Study. He is also the initial recipient of ISEA’s Distinguished Lecturer Award.

Craig Newschaffer, Ph.D., is professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Drexel University School of Public Health. Dr. Newschaffer recently joined the Drexel faculty, coming from the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. At Johns Hopkins, Dr. Newschaffer founded and directed the Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Epidemiology, one of five federally funded centers of excellence in autism epidemiology. Major initiatives included the development of methods for monitoring autism spectrum disorders prevalence and participation in the largest population-based epidemiologic study of autism risk factors to date: the National Centers for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Research and Epidemiology (CADDRE) Study of Autism and Child Development. Dr. Newschaffer also is engaged in other projects focusing on how particular genes might interact with environmental exposures to increase autism risk. He recently began a collaboration with Peking University to explore approaches for conducting epidemiologic research on autism in China. Dr. Newschaffer is an associate editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology and a member of the editorial board of the journal Developmental Epidemiology.

Mark Noble, Ph.D., is a pioneering researcher in the field of stem cell biology and CNS development. He was codiscoverer of the first progenitor cell to be isolated from the CNS, the progenitor cell that gives rise to myelin-forming oligodendrocytes. His laboratory then discovered cell–cell interactions and specific mitogens that control the division of these cells, along with conditions allowing greatly enhanced cell expansion in vitro. These discoveries led to the first use of purified precursor cell populations for repair of experimental CNS lesions. His laboratory also discovered adult-specific populations of progenitor cells, and the team of researchers with whom he works has played a central role in the discovery, isolation, and characterization of nearly all of the lineage-restricted progenitor cell populations that have been isolated from the developing CNS, characterized at the clonal level, and transplanted back into the CNS. Dr. Noble’s current research is focused on developing a comprehensive approach to the field of stem cell medicine, research which includes topics such as identifying the optimal cells for enhancing repair of spinal cord injury; the central importance of precursor cell dysfunction in developmental maladies; and the discovery of molecular mechanisms that underlie effects of environmentally relevant levels of chemically diverse toxicants on CNS precursor cells and that integrate stem cell biology, redox biology, signaling pathway analysis, and toxicology into a mechanistic framework. Dr. Noble is professor of genetics, neurobiology, and anatomy at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and is codirector of the New York State Center of Research Excellence for Spinal Cord Injury.

Isaac Pessah, Ph.D., is professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Biosciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California–Davis. He is also director of the NIEHS/EPA Children’s Center for Environmental Health and Disease Prevention: Environmental Factors in the Etiology of Autism. Dr. Pessah is a toxicologist with research interest in the area of molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating signaling in excitable cells. His current research focuses on the structure, function, and pharmacology of the ryanodine-sensitive calcium channels (RyRs) found in sarcoplasmic and endoplasmic reticulum of muscle cells and neurons. His laboratory is actively studying how dysfunction of RyRs complexes contribute to genetic diseases and how genetic alteration of RyRs and environmental factors interact to influence neurodevelopment by utilizing cellular, biochemical, and molecular investigations of calcium-signaling pathways. He is a senior member of the NIEHS Center of Excellence in Toxicology and the Superfund Basic Research Program.

William F. Raub, Ph.D., is science advisor to the secretary of Health and Human Services and deputy assistant secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness. Dr. Raub was acting assistant secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness from 2003 to 2004, principal deputy assistant secretary for Planning and Evaluation from 2000 to 2002, acting assistant secretary for Planning and Evaluation during 2001 and again during 2003, and deputy assistant secretary for Science Policy from 1995 to 2000. He was the science advisor to the EPA administrator from 1992 to 1995 after a 1-year assignment as special assistant for Health Affairs in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President of the United States. Prior to that, he was the deputy director of NIH from 1986 through 1991. From 1989 through 1991, he was the acting director, NIH. From 1978 to 1986, Dr. Raub served first as associate director, and later deputy director, for Extramural Research and Training at NIH. He was associate director of the National Eye Institute from 1975 to 1978 and chief of the Biotechnology Resources Branch in the Division of Research Resources from 1969 to 1975. From 1966 through 1979, Dr. Raub led the development of the PROPHET system, the first integrated array of computer-based tools for the study of the relationships between molecular structures and biological effects. Dr. Raub has received numerous awards from external organizations for his government service, including the Society of Research Administrators’ Award for Distinguished Contribution to Research Administration, the American Medical Association’s Nathan Davis Award, and election as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. In addition, within DHHS, he has twice been presented the Distinguished Service Award and has received the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award and the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award. Dr. Raub earned an A.B. in biology from Wilkes College and a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also was awarded an NSF graduate fellowship and was a fellow of the Pennsylvania Plan.

Lyn Redwood, R.N., M.S.N., CRNP, is a nurse practitioner and has worked in the nursing profession for 25 years specializing in pediatrics and women’s health care. In the late 1990s, she became involved in autism research when her son was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified and found to be mercury toxic. Ms. Redwood is coauthor of Autism: A Novel Form of Mercury Toxicity and has testified before the Government Reform Committee on Mercury in Medicine on the question: Are we taking unnecessary risks? As a writer and researcher on autism and mercury toxicity, Ms. Redwood has been published in Neurotoxicology, Medical Hypothesis, Molecular Psychiatry, Mothering Magazine, and Autism-Aspergers Digest. She has also appeared on “Good Morning America” with Diane Sawyer and has been interviewed by U.S. News and World Report, Wired Magazine, and numerous other publications. Ms. Redwood is cofounder of the Coalition for SafeMinds and was featured prominently in the book “Evidence of Harm” by David Kirby.

Diana E. Schendel, Ph.D., is lead health scientist and epidemiology team lead in the Developmental Disabilities Branch, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, CDC. She serves as science liaison for CDC’s CADDRE and is principal investigator for CDC’s Georgia CADDRE study site. She coordinates scientific activities in CADDRE, including the CADDRE multisite study of autism (Study to Explore Early Development, or SEED), the largest epidemiologic study of the causes of autism planned to date. She serves as science liaison and CDC principal investigator for CDC’s Collaborative Public Health Research Program in Denmark with the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation. Her professional research interests are in developmental disabilities epidemiology. She has been recognized for her work in autism (Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service [2005], Autism Public Health Response Team, Secretary of Health and Human Services; CDC and ATSDR Group Honor Award [2002]), Research Operational, Autism Public Health Response Team) and cerebral palsy. She is a member of the epidemiology subcommittee of the Scientific Advisory Board of Autism Speaks and Scientific Advisory Board of the European Autism Information System. She received a B.S. in both biology and anthropology from Florida State University and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Pennsylvania State University. She began her career at Tufts University in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, then joined CDC’s Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities as an epidemiologist.

David A. Schwartz, M.D., biography in Workshop Planning Committee.

Theodore A. Slotkin, Ph.D., received a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Rochester. He has done extensive research in the areas of developmental pharmacology and toxicology, neuropharmacology and neurochemistry, and cell differentiation and growth regulation. His research is aimed toward understanding the interaction of drugs, hormones, and environmental factors with the developing organism, with particular emphasis on the fetal and neonatal nervous systems. His most notable achievements concern the effects of fetal exposure to drugs of abuse, especially tobacco and nicotine; drugs used in preterm labor; and neuroactive pesticides. He has received numerous honors and awards for his research work, notably the Alton Ochsner Award Relating Smoking and Health, the John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology, and the Otto Krayer Award in Pharmacology, and has published more than 480 peer-reviewed articles. He has served on NIH Consensus Panels on Pharmacotherapies for Smoking Cessation During Pregnancy and on The Use of Antenatal Steroids. He has chaired review boards for the California Tobacco-Related Diseases Research Program, and he serves on the editorial boards of three scholarly journals. He is among the 1 percent of “Most Cited Scientists in Pharmacology & Toxicology” identified by the Institute for Scientific Information.

Sarah Spence, M.D., Ph.D., is a board-certified pediatric neurologist with a doctorate in neuropsychology and clinical and research expertise in autism spectrum disorders. She received her Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from UCLA in 1992 and her M.D. from UCSF in 1995. She completed her medical training in pediatrics and neurology at UCLA in 2000 and a fellowship in neurobehavioral genetics in 2001 with Dr. Daniel Geschwind while working with the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE), a gene bank created by the Cure Autism Now foundation. She then served on the UCLA medical school faculty, where she was a member of the Center for Autism Research and Treatment, responsible for overseeing research recruitment and assessment. She was medical director of the Autism Evaluation Clinic, with an active practice specializing in children with autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Spence was recently recruited to the Division of Intramural Research at NIMH, where she is contributing to the design and administration of various clinical research protocols examining the phenomenology of and novel treatments for children with autism spectrum disorders. She continues to work with community organizations as a neurological consultant to AGRE, a member of the Treatment Advisory Board and Autism Treatment Network steering committees for CAN, and the treatment subcommittee of the Scientific Advisory Committee for Autism Speaks. Her research interests include the role of epilepsy in autism, examination of the autism phenome, clinical trials in novel treatments, and the genetics of autism spectrum and related developmental disorders.

Ezra Susser, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., is the Anna Cheskis Gelman and Murray Charles Gelman Professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology, and professor of psychiatry in the New York State Psychiatric Institute. His primary research has been on the epidemiology of mental disorders and on examining the role of early life experience in health and disease throughout the life course. His international collaborative birth cohort research program (The Imprints Center) seeks to uncover the causes of a broad range of disease and health outcomes, including psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, among others. Among the risk factors explored are prenatal exposures to infectious disease and toxic chemicals, childhood nutrition and environment, and genetics, as well as the interplay of genetic and environmental risk factors. Dr. Susser has also focused on public health initiatives regarding HIV/AIDS throughout his career, both locally and internationally.

Susan Swedo, M.D., biography in Workshop Planning Committee.

David R. Walt, Ph.D., is Robinson Professor of Chemistry at Tufts University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor. He received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in chemical biology from SUNY–Stony Brook. After postdoctoral studies at MIT, he joined the chemistry faculty at Tufts. He served as chemistry department chair from 1989 to 1996. Dr. Walt serves on many government advisory panels and boards and serves on the editorial advisory boards for numerous journals. From 1996 to 2003, he was executive editor of Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology. Dr. Walt is the scientific founder and a director of Illumina, Inc. He has received numerous national and international awards and honors and is a fellow of AAAS. Dr. Walt has published over 200 papers, holds more than 40 patents, and has given hundreds of invited scientific presentations.

Allen J. Wilcox, M.D., Ph.D., is a senior investigator in the Epidemiology Branch of NIEHS, NIH, where he has worked since 1979. He was chief of the Epidemiology Branch from 1991 to 2001, and since 2001 has served as the editor-in-chief of the journal Epidemiology. He is past president of the American Epidemiological Society, the Society for Epidemiologic Research, and the Society for Pediatric Epidemiologic Research. He holds adjunct appointments as professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina and the University of Bergen (Norway), and has served on three IOM committees. He is a fellow in the American College of Epidemiology. His research area is reproductive and perinatal epidemiology, with special interest in early pregnancy, pregnancy loss, and fetal growth and development. His current research project is on the genetic and environmental causes of cleft lip and cleft palate. He received a B.A. in psychology and an M.D. from the University of Michigan, and an M.P.H. in maternal and child health and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from UNC–Chapel Hill.

STAFF

Bruce M. Altevogt, Ph.D., is a senior program officer in the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the IOM. His primary interests focus on policy issues related to basic research and preparedness for catastrophic events. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University’s Program in Neuroscience. Following over 10 years of research, Dr. Altevogt joined the National Academies as a science and technology policy fellow with the Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship Program. Since joining the Board on Health Sciences Policy, he has been a program officer on multiple IOM studies including, Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem, The National Academies’ Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research: 2007 Amendments, and Assessment of the NIOSH Head-and-Face Anthropometric Survey of U.S. Respirator Users. He is currently serving as the director of the Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders Forum and a co-study director on the National Academy of Sciences Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee. He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where he majored in biology and minored in South Asian studies.

Andrew Pope, Ph.D., is director of the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the IOM. With a Ph.D. in physiology and biochemistry, his primary interests focus on environmental and occupational influences on human health. Dr. Pope’s previous research activities focused on the neuroendocrine and reproductive effects of various environmental substances on food-producing animals. During his tenure at the National Academies and since 1989 at the IOM, Dr. Pope has directed numerous studies; topics include injury control, disability prevention, biological markers, neurotoxicology, indoor allergens, and the enhancement of environmental and occupational health content in medical and nursing school curriculums. Most recently, Dr. Pope directed studies on NIH priority-setting processes, organ procurement and transplantation policy, and the role of science and technology in countering terrorism.

Sarah L. Hanson is a senior program associate in the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the IOM. Ms. Hanson previously worked for the Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research. She is currently the senior program associate for the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders. Prior to joining the IOM, she served as research and program assistant at the National Research Center for Women & Families. Ms. Hanson has a B.A. from the University of Kansas with a double major in political science and international studies. She is currently taking premedicine courses at the University of Maryland and hopes to attend medical school in the future.

Afrah J. Ali is a senior program assistant for the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the IOM. Earlier, she studied biology at Howard University. Ms. Ali has 7 years of integrated project management, executive administration, publishing, event planning, research, and marketing experience. Her previous positions include marketing specialist at Standard and Poor’s E-marketing division in New York City.

Lora K. Taylor is a senior program assistant for the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the IOM. She has 15 years of experience working at the National Academies. Before joining the IOM she served as the administrative associate for the Report Review Committee and the Division on Life Sciences’ Ocean Studies Board. Ms. Taylor has a B.A. from Georgetown University with a double major in psychology and fine arts.