This Year’s Honoree
Margaret R. Becklake, M.D.

Dr. Becklake is an Emeritus Professor at McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada, and holds appointments in the Departments of Medicine, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health. She graduated in medicine from the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg). After completing specialty training at the British Postgraduate Medical School, London, she returned to Johannesburg to a faculty position at her alma mater and as Pulmonary Physiologist to the Miners’ Medical Bureau. In 1957 she joined the Cardio-respiratory Division, Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University, and in 1967 was recruited by the Chair of the then Department of Epidemiology and Health, Dr. J.C. McDonald, to develop a lung function laboratory in support of his research program into the health of Québec asbestos miners and millers. She was Director of the Summer Program in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from 1968 to 2003. Her research interests include the host, environmental and occupational determinants of childhood and adult airway disease. She has collaborated in international research in Kenya and South Africa, and in courses on respiratory disease given by the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in Africa, and jointly with the American Thoracic Society in Central and South America. Her awards include a Career Investigator Award, Medical Research Council, Canada (1968-1993), the Distinguished Achievement and World Lung Health Awards of the American Thoracic Society, Fellowship of the Royal Society (Canada), and honorary degrees from her alma mater and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.

This Year’s Keynote Speaker
Meryl H. Karol, Ph.D.

Dr. Meryl Karol is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health, at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health. Dr. Karol received a B.S. in Microbiology from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Immunochemistry from Columbia University. Dr. Karol has specialized in the study of mechanisms of chemical allergy and asthma. Dr. Karol has been active in several scientific and professional societies. She was the first female President of the Society of Toxicology (1994-1995), was a Director of the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX) (1995-1998), and its Secretary-General (1998-2004). She is a Fellow and Member of the Board of Directors of the American Toxicology Society. Dr. Karol serves on the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and chairs the Subcommittee on Pharmaceutical Toxicology of the Advisory Committee for Pharmaceutical Science for the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation Research. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Rachel Carson Award, Women in Science Award, the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Public Health, and the Frank R. Blood Award. Dr. Karol’s studies on chemical allergens and pulmonary toxicants have been supported by the NIEHS, NIOSH, USDA, Bayer, USA and the International Isocyanate Institute.