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Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
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COMMITTEE BIOGRAPHIES

David J. Tollerud, MD, MPH (Chair), is professor of public health, medicine, and pharmacology/toxicology at the School of Public Health and Information Sciences, University of Louisville, and Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. Dr. Tollerud received his MD from Mayo Medical School and his MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. He has extensive clinical training, with specialty-board certifications in internal medicine, pulmonary and critical-care medicine, and occupational medicine. He has extensive experience in epidemiology and population studies, particularly those involving the use of immunological biomarkers, and in environmental and occupational health research focusing on prevention of injury and illness. In addition to his work in public health, he supervises clinical-trials data management and data-analysis activities for the multidisciplinary Institute for Cellular Therapeutics at the University of Louisville. Dr. Tollerud also has extensive experience in pulmonary medicine and respiratory disease, particularly asthma and occupational lung diseases, and in occupational hazards and indoor and outdoor air

Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
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pollution. He has a 10-year history of service to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and was recognized for his contributions by his appointment as a National Academies fellow. He is a member of the IOM Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, is the board liaison to the Committee on Poison Control, and is the former chair of the IOM Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides.

David V. Becker, MD, is professor of radiology and medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College in the Department of Radiology in the Division of Nuclear Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Dr. Becker’s clinical and research interests are primarily in thyroid physiology, radiation effects on the thyroid, and the management of clinical thyroid disease, with a particular focus on the pathophysiology of thyroid disease in humans and animals with emphasis on iodine and thyroid hormone metabolism in a variety of clinical disorders. His major clinical activities are related to the use of radioiodine for the management of hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer. Dr. Becker has been president of the American Thyroid Association, and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Endocrinology, and the New York Academy of Medicine. In recognition of his clinical activities in patient care, he has been cited in the last three editions of the Best Doctors in the United States in the areas of both nuclear medicine and thyroid disease. Since 1983, he has participated in the National Cancer Institute’s I-131 Risk Assessment Study Group, which was mandated by Congress to determine the risk factors in radioiodine use. That group has evolved into the present Chornobyl Fallout Joint Study Group, which Dr. Becker chaired. He participates in a number of consultative and policy making committees. Dr. Becker was the founding member of the executive committee of a multicenter US Public Health Service study of 36,000 hyperthyroid patients, of whom 23,000 received radioiodine treatment. Initiated in 1960, that follow-up study represents the largest radioiodine-treated hyperthyroid population. After an internship in internal medicine, Dr. Becker was a fellow in the Biophysics Department of the Sloan-Kettering Institute from 1950 to 1952. Later, he entered the US Army, where he

Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
×

established the Army’s second clinical radioisotope laboratory at Brooke Army Hospital. At that time, he began the use of tracer technology for in-vivo studies of thyroid-hormone metabolism and aspects of iodide metabolism. After leaving the Army in 1954, he completed his residency at New York Hospital and established its nuclear medicine department.

Lewis E. Braverman, MD, is chief, Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition at Boston Medical Center and professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. In addition, he is a senior physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a visiting professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a visiting physician at St. Elizabeth's Hospital. Dr. Braverman has been affiliated with Tufts Medical School, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Beth Israel Hospital, in Boston. He was a visiting professor of medicine at Royal Perth Hospital, University of Perth, in Australia in 1983. In that year, he spent time as a professor of endocrinology at the University of Pisa Medical School in Italy. Dr. Braverman received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and his MD from John Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his internship at Beth Israel Hospital and then spent two years as a captain in the US Army. He conducted his residency at Boston City Hospital on the Harvard Medical Services and finished his medical training as a research fellow in endocrinology at Harvard Medical School, the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, and Boston City Hospital. He received an honorary MD from the University of Parma Medical School in Italy.

L. Robin Keller, PhD, is professor of operations and decision technologies at the graduate school of management of the University of California Irvine. She is an expert in decision analysis, risk analysis, creative problem-structuring and behavioral decision theory. She is a past president of the Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS. Dr. Keller has served as a program director and advisory-panel member for the Decision, Risk, and Management Science Program of the US National Science Foundation in Washington, DC. Her research interests focus on the development and use of techniques for

Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
×

analyzing multiple-stakeholder, multiple-objective decisions. Dr. Keller received her PhD and MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with specialization in management science. She has been on the University of California, Irvine (UCI) faculty since 1982 and has been a visiting professor at Duke and UCLA. She served as associate dean for research at UCI.

Karen S. Langley, MS, is director of the Radiological Health Department at the University of Utah. She received her MS in radiological health physics from San Diego State University. She is the radiation safety officer for the University of Utah, including the medical school, hospitals, and research and teaching facilities. She is a member of the Reactor Radiation Safety Committee and performs audits of operations and environmental and radiation safety monitoring. She also coordinates the oversight of radiation use applications in human research. She is an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Physics at Idaho State University. In the Health Physics Society, she is a member of the Board of Directors, president of the Medical Health Physics Section, and past chair of the Program and Symposia Committees. She is chair of the Radiation Control Board for the Utah Division of Radiation Control. She is also a member of Sigma Xi.

Timothy J. Maher, PhD, is professor of pharmacology and Sawyer Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. He is also served as dean of research and graduate studies at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. He is also the president and CEO of Longwood Pharmacology Research, Inc. Dr. Maher received his PhD in pharmacology at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. His research interests include pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, toxicological aspects of therapeutic agents, neuropharmacology, and nutritional pharmacology. He is also knowledgeable in drug-distribution functions, patient education, and monitoring and management of pharmaceutical care. He has served as an ad hoc expert for the Life Sciences Research Office under

Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
×

contract for the Food and Drug Administration, and he is the author and co-author of several publications.

Kenneth L. Miller, MS, CHP, CMHP, is professor of radiology and director of the Division of Health Physics at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center of the Pennsylvania State University in Hershey, Pennsylvania. He received his MS in radiological health at the University of Pittsburgh. He is comprehensively certified in health physics by the American Board of Health Physics and in medical health physics by the American Board of Medical Physics. In 1966, he began his career in health physics at the Pennsylvania State University. In 1971, he was appointed director of health physics and research associate at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center of Penn State University. Since moving to the Hershey Medical Center, he has produced over 430 presentations, scientific exhibits, and publications (including 11 books). In 1995, he was elected to the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP), and he was re-elected for another six-year term in 2001. He is a member of NCRP’s Scientific Committee 46 on Operational Radiation Safety. He serves on numerous federal, state, and local advisory committees and is a member of various professional societies, including the Health Physics Society, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Society for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and the American Nuclear Society. He has been a delegate to the International Radiation Protection Association and has served on the Board of Directors and as parliamentarian of the Health Physics Society. He has served on the American Board of Health Physics and is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Medical Physics. In 1982, he received the Elda E. Anderson Award from the Health Physics Society. From 1994 to 2000, he was editor-in-chief of Health Physics. Since 1998, he has been editor-in-chief of Operational Radiation Safety.

Christoph H-J Reiners, MD, is professor of medicine and director of the Clinic for Nuclear Medicine at the University of Würzburg. He received his doctorate in medicine at the Faculty of Medicine,

Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
×

University of Würzburg. His research interests include diagnostics and therapy of thyroid diseases; studies of iodine metabolism; diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of radiation-induced thyroid carcinoma; nuclear medicine diagnostics in oncology, neurology, gastroenterology, cardiology, and urology; quantitative determination of bone density; and application of statistical methods in diagnostic procedures. Starting in June 2003, he has served as a director of the German World Health Organization Radiological Emergency Medical Preparedness Assistance Network Center. Dr. Reiners has been a member of the Medical Working Party of the Commission of Radiation Protection (SSK) of the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety since 1989, and he was a chairman of SSK for three years. He has also been chairman of the working group for thyroid diseases of the German Society for Nuclear Medicine since 1995. He served as a member of the German delegation to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation in 2000. Since 1993, Dr. Reiners has run a Belorussian-German project aiming at treatment of thyroid cancer in children and adolescents who have been exposed to Chornobyl fallout. Since September 2003, Dr. Reiners has run a German liaison institute of the WHO radiological emergency medical preparedness assistance network (REMPAN), which is designated to become a WHO collaboration center in the REMPAN-Network.

John J. Russell, MS, is a radiobiologist and curator of the National Human Radiobiology Tissue Repository and associate director of the United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries (USTUR), College of Pharmacy, Washington State University. His research interests include genetic risk associated with internally deposited actinides; the histopathology and histochemistry of liver tumors induced by internal emitters or chemical carcinogens; the pharmacodynamics, histopathology, and histochemistry and therapy of metal poisons, tumor affinity of rare earths and actinides. Mr. Russell was among the first to demonstrate the microdistribution of plutonium in animal tissues using LR-115 film. He wrote several publications describing the genetic risks posed by internal emitters (such as plutonium and americium). His more recent work in

Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
×

molecular biology has been an investigation to determine whether deletion, altered expression, or mutation of selected tumor-suppressor genes is associated with the various tumor types—hepatocarcinomas, cholangiocarcinomas, and osteogenic sarcomas—that have been found in some deceased USTUR registrants and, if so, whether the association depends on radiation dose or dose rate.

Robert H. Volland, MA, received a BA in International Affairs in 1962 and an MA in Public Administration in 1973 from the George Washington University. In 1976, he was named Executive Assistant to the Federal Disaster Assistant Administration. He became the first Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director of Finance and Administration, a Senior Executive Service position with responsibility for budgeting, accounting, acquisition and administrative services. From 1979 to 1989, he served in a number of senior level positions in FEMA, including Director of Personnel, Assistant Chief of Staff for Administration, and Director, Office of Training. In 1989, he was assigned to the disaster relief program as Chief of the Individual Assistance Division. Mr. Volland served as acting associate director and later as acting deputy associate director. In his permanent assignment as Chief of Program Development and Coordination, Volland managed the development of the first National Mitigation Strategy and the convening of the first National Mitigation Conference. He also served as FEMA’s representative to the federal interagency Subcommittee for Natural Disaster Reduction. In 1998, he became a senior volunteer consultant to the American Red Cross. He also helped develop and deliver training that “rolled out” the Red Cross’s mitigation program at the Chapter level.

Edward L. Wilds, Jr., PhD, is director of the Bureau of Air Management's Division of Radiation at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, which is responsible for ensuring public safety by establishing policies and practices for state control of the manufacture, use, and transportation of radioactive materials. Those duties include radiological emergency response, planning for the safe disposal of radioactive waste, monitoring the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, inspection of facilities that use ionizing radiation,

Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
×

and managing the enforcement of Connecticut laws and regulations. He also represents Connecticut's interests in federal and state regulatory hearings. Dr. Wilds served for more than ten years as the radiation safety manager at the University of Connecticut, overseeing the radiation safety staff and operations. Before arriving at the University of Connecticut, he served as a physics instructor and radiation safety officer at the US Coast Guard Academy. Other Coast Guard assignments included assistant engineering officer, marine inspector, disaster control officer, and damage control assistant. He serves as chairman of the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors E-37 Naval Nuclear Propulsion Committee; co-chair of the Council of State Governments Eastern Regional Conference's High-Level Radioactive Waste Transportation Task Force; and member of the Connecticut Nuclear Energy Advisory Council, the Three Rivers Community Technical College's Nuclear Advisory Committee, the State of Connecticut KI Working Group, and the US Department of Energy's Transportation External Coordination Working Group's Consolidated Grant and Tribal Issues Topic Groups. He is the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection commissioner's representative on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Hazardous Waste Management Service. He also has served on Connecticut's Low-Level Radioactive Waste Advisory Committee, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's National KI Core Working Group, the Low Level Waste Forum, and a working group for the Center for Strategic and International Studies report on the regulatory process for nuclear power reactors.

Sir E. Dillwyn Williams, MD, FRCPath, is an emeritus professor at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and is involved in a small thyroid carcinogenesis research group. Previously, he served as the chair of histopathology at Cambridge and professor and chairman of pathology at the University of Wales. He was knighted in 1990 for his service to medicine. His early work combined experimental studies of thyroid growth and carcinogenesis with diagnostic thyroid pathology. He was the first to identify medullary carcinoma of the thyroid as being of C-cell origin, showing that it was the only type of thyroid cancer with a significant link to pheochromocytoma and to

Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
×

Cushing syndrome and that it could be familial. He was alsothe first to describe tumor-associated diarrhea and gave the first description of its link to pheochromocytoma and multiple mucosal neuromas in what is now known as MEN IIB. He was the author of the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of thyroid and endocrine tumors and will be a contributor to the new edition. Throughout his career, he has been interested in the role of radiation in thyroid carcinogenesis and in the interaction of thyroid growth and radiation. That has led to involvement in the consequences of the Chornobyl accident; he chaired a joint European Community-World Health Organozation meeting when the first reports of an increase in thyroid carcinoma became available. And that in turn led to the recognition that there was an urgent need for an international investigation of the situation. He initiated the creation of an international group that created a Chornobyl tumor bank, which is now making nucleic acids available for approved research projects. He has chaired the Scientific Project Panel and the Pathology Panel of the tumor bank since its inception. His own studies of the Chornobyl-related tumors have included work on the confirmation of the diagnosis and on the relationship between tumor morphology and molecular biology. He has served as president of the European Thyroid Association, the Royal College of Pathologists, and the British Medical Association. Dr. Williams received his medical degree at Cambridge, and his interest in endocrinology and endocrine pathology began at the London Hospital and the Postgraduate Medical School in London in the 1960s. He was a US National Institutes of Health postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Lauren Zeise, PhD, is chief of reproductive and cancer hazard assessment in the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. She received her MS and PhD from Harvard University, where she also conducted postdoctoral research on risk-assessment methodology. Dr. Zeise serves on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board and EPA FIFRA Science Advisory Panel and has served on various ad hoc advisory committees of the agency. Other

Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
×

service includes membership on various committees of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the National Research Council, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Toxicology Program, and the Office of Technology Assessment. She now serves on the IOM Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and the National Research Council Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. She is member, fellow, and councilor of the Society of Risk Analysis and is on the Editorial Board of the society’s journal. The National Cancer Institute Smoking and Tobacco Smoke Monograph Health Effects of Environmental Tobacco Smoke was conceived and developed under her editorial direction. For the California EPA, she has overseen a variety of the state’s cancer, reproductive, and ecological risk assessment of ecological risk guidance, establishment of baseline risks associated with gasoline use in California and guidance for evaluating risks to the fetus, children, and adolescents posed by environmental exposure. Her research has focused on cancer risk-assessment methodology and applications. She is coauthor and coeditor of the 1999 International Agency for Research on Cancer Monograph Quantitative Estimation and Prediction of Cancer Risk.

Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
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Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
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Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
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Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
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Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
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Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
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Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
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Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
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Suggested Citation:"Committee Biographies." National Research Council. 2004. Distribution and Administration of Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10868.
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Radioactive iodines are produced during the operation of nuclear power plants and during the detonation of nuclear weapons. In the event of a radiation incident, radioiodine is one of the contaminants that could be released into the environment. Exposure to radioiodine can lead to radiation injury to the thyroid, including thyroid cancer. Radiation to the thyroid from radioiodine can be limited by taking a nonradioactive iodine (stable iodine) such as potassium iodide. This book assesses strategies for the distribution and administration of potassium iodide (KI) in the event of a nuclear incident. The report says that potassium iodide pills should be available to everyone age 40 or younger—especially children and pregnant and lactating women—living near a nuclear power plant. States and municipalities should decide how to stockpile, distribute, and administer potassium iodide tablets, and federal agencies should keep a backup supply of tablets and be prepared to distribute them to affected areas.

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