Director

Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., A.T.S.
Director, NIEHS & NTP

Tel (919) 541-3201
Fax (919) 541-2260
birnbaumls@niehs.nih.gov

Curriculum Vitae (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/about/od/director/docs/birnbaum-cv.pdf)   (368KB) P.O. Box 12233
Mail Drop B2-01
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709
Delivery Instructions

Linda S. Birnbaum is Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Toxicology Program. As NIEHS and NTP director, Dr. Birnbaum oversees a $730 million budget that funds multidisciplinary biomedical research programs, prevention, and intervention efforts that encompass training, education, technology transfer, and community outreach. The NIEHS supports more than 1,240 research grants.

Dr. Birnbaum has received numerous awards, including 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. She is the author of more than 600 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, abstracts, and reports. Dr. Birnbaum received her M.S. and Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Illinois, Urbana. A board certified toxicologist, Dr. Birnbaum has served as a federal scientist for nearly 29 years - 19 years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development, and the first ten years at NIEHS 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.

NIEHS Mission

The mission of the NIEHS is to reduce the burden of human illness and disability by understanding how the environment influences the development and progression of human disease. 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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