Dr. Theo Colborn , born in 1927, is a prominent scientist in the area of zoology.  During her successful career she has accomplished a great deal, including groundbreaking research on the effects of toxins on endocrine systems.  She published the shocking book Our Stolen Future along with John Peterson Myers and Dianne Dumanoski in 1996, which opened many eyes to the dangers of PCBs and dioxins to living organisms. Throughout her career she has been awarded the Rachel Carson Leadership Award (1997) and has published three books.

    While attending Rutgers University for a degree in pharmacy, Theo met her soon to be husband.  She married Harry Colborn and they not only had four children, but also managed owning three drugstores. Some years after, in 1962, Theo and the entire Colborn family relocated to Colorado, hoping to enjoy nature. However, the area was not what the Colborns’ had expected.  Theo Colborn saw that a local river was being polluted by  coal mining and became interested.  She wanted to stop the pollution that was coming out of the mine, but she had to gain a greater knowledge to make a difference. 

  In 1978 she decided to go to graduate school, studying ecology at Western State College of Colorado. Eventually in 1982 she worked on her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in zoology. Three years later, in 1985, after her husband had deceased, she worked as a congressional fellow at the Office of Technology Assessment.

    In 1987 Theo entered into new innovative work, tackling a problem in the Great Lakes.  There had been an increase of health-related problems among the Great Lakes’ animals. Evidently, the water had been getting cleaner, but these animals were continuing to have health problems. Dr. Colborn began her research, looking for an answer. She found that synthetic organochlorinides such as DDT and PCB stop hormones from functioning properly in an animal. This woman scientist was the first to document the impact that many petroleum-derived chemicals have on endocrine and immune systems. This research changed the minds of many scientists who had previously thought that these chemicals only cause cancer in animals.  Her theory said that these chemicals threatened many processes and living animals, including the development of babies. Her research startled not only scientists but also much of the public, who now took an interest into this topic. She has caused a complete turnaround on how the world views toxic chemicals and their threats.

    For now, 74-year old Dr. Theo Colborn writes articles on the environment, speaks to groups, and is a member of the advisory board for NPR’s environmental news program. She still continues to research chemicals that affect the endocrine system as senior scientist and director of Wildlife and Contaminants project at the World Wildlife Fund.

bibliography:

Environmental News Network

Center for Environmental Literacy

by Erin Crane