Dr. Louis Guillette was a mentor, brilliant scientist, teacher, colleague, and extraordinary communicator, a man who captured the attention of the world in bringing scientific credibility to endocrine disruption as a major public health issue. Dr. Guillette died in early August from health problems related to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In honor of Dr. Guillette’s life, this call paid tribute to the power and integrity of his leadership.
Drs. Pete Myers, Shanna Swann, Fred vom Saal, and Ana Soto, colleagues of Dr. Guillette and co-leaders in scientific inquiry, joined the call to describe the importance of his work and the impact his research continues to have on to decision-makers, researchers, and those concerned about the health of future generations. This call lasted an hour, giving time for those with memories or stories to share.
Featured Speakers
Dr. John Peterson Myers is founder, CEO and Chief Scientist of Environmental Health Sciences. Myers is now actively involved in primary research on the impacts of endocrine disruption on human health. He has chaired the board of the Science Communication Network since its founding in 2003. Along with co-authors Dr. Theo Colborn and Dianne Dumanoski, Myers wrote Our Stolen Future, a book (1996) that explores the scientific basis of concern for how contamination threatens fetal development.
Dr. Ana Soto is a Professor of Integrative Physiology & Pathobiology at Tufts University. Dr. Soto's laboratory studies the regulation of cell proliferation by sex steroids.This work is based on the premise that proliferation is the default state of all living cells. The lab recently identified an androgen-induced gene that mediates the state of proliferative quiescence observed in normal adult prostate epithelium. In collaboration with Dr. Carlos Sonnenschein, Dr. Soto and her colleagues have proposed the tissue organization field theory of carcinogenesis.
Dr. Shanna Swan is a Professor of Preventive Medicine and of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Swan has worked for over twenty-five years to understand the threats posed by chemicals to our environment and our health, and, when necessary, to develop new paradigms to assess their risks. Of most concern to Dr. Swan are the chemicals that our bodies can confuse with its own hormones (the “endocrine disrupting” chemicals).
Dr. Frederick vom Saal is the Curators' Professor in the Division of Biological Sciences at the College of Arts and Science at the University of Columbia-Missouri.Dr. vom Saal's groundbreaking research has significantly impacted public health policy as he has uncovered the risks associated with exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), a commonly used chemical ingredient in consumer products, such as baby bottles, receipt paper, food and soda cans.
This teleconference call is one in a monthly series sponsored by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment’s EDC Strategies Group. The CHE EDC Strategies Group is chaired by Carol Kwiatkowski (TEDX), Sharyle Patton (Commonweal), and Genon Jensen (HEAL). To see a full list of past calls in the series and listen to the MP3 recordings please visit the CHE Endocrine Distrupting Chemicals webpage.
The call was moderated by Carol Kwiatkowski, Executive Director, TEDX.