Toxicological Sciences 56, 5-7 (2000)
Copyright © 2000 by the Society of Toxicology
Profiles in Toxicology |
Mary O. Amdur
,1
* Pulmonary Toxicology Branch, ETO-NHEERL, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, MD-82, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27511; and
New York University Medical Center, Department of Environmental Medicine, 57 Old Forge Road, Tuxedo, New York 10987
Received September 3, 1999; accepted March 3, 2000
To remember Mary O. Amdur simply as a pioneer in air pollution toxicology, who overcame gender, political, and scientific barriers to proclaim the potential for interactions between sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, would be an injustice. In our discussions of what to highlight in this brief biography, we struggled with accomplishments we thought merited emphasis versus what we thought Mary would want to see accented. Indeed, Mary shunned the spotlight most of her career, for she felt she was simply making inquiries in small, logical steps, in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of how mixtures of air pollutants interacted to adversely affect health. She was never on the conventional academic career ladder, either in fact or in spirit. Mary was a woman of principle, even when this led to decisions that would take her career over the "hard-road," for she did what she felt was right despite the consequences.
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