Distributed March 27, 2002
For Immediate Release

News Service Contact: Scott Turner



Barnes Lectureship in Public Health

Bioterrorism specialist Margaret Hamburg to speak at Brown April 11

On Thursday, April 11, 2002, at 4 p.m. Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., will deliver a lecture titled “Bioterrorism: Ready or Not,” in Sayles Hall, located on The College Green at Brown University. Her presentation, the third annual Dr. and Mrs. Frederick W. Barnes Jr. Lectureship in Public Health, will be free and open to the public.


PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., vice president for biological programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative in Washington, D.C., will present the lecture “Bioterrorism: Ready or Not” at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 11, in Sayles Hall, located on The College Green at Brown University. Her talk will be free and open to the public.

The Nuclear Threat Initiative is a charitable organization that works to reduce global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. An internationally recognized expert on biological terrorism, Hamburg served previously as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She was principal policy advisor to the secretary and responsible for agency efforts to plan for potential bioterrorist attacks.

Hamburg also served almost six years as commissioner of the New York City Department of Health. As chief health officer in the nation’s largest city, her accomplishments included developing a globally acclaimed tuberculosis control program and a set of initiatives that raised childhood immunization rates to record levels. She also created the nation’s first public health bioterrorism preparedness program.

Her talk at Brown will be the third annual Dr. and Mrs. Frederick W. Barnes Jr. Lectureship in Public Health. It will be preceded by a public health research day poster session and reception in Sayles Hall from 2 until 3:30 p.m. All of these events are free and open to the public.

“Dr. Hamburg has worked at local, national and international levels to prevent and to be prepared for bioterrorism events,” said Terrie Wetle, associate dean of medicine for public health and public policy. “She will help us to better understand the nature of the bioterrorism threat, how to prevent a bioterrorism event and how to best prepare to respond should one occur.”

The lecture is also “part of a larger collaborative effort involving Brown Medical School, the Rhode Island Department of Health and the hospitals of Rhode Island to coordinate preparedness efforts and to be better informed regarding the threat of bioterrorism,” Wetle said.

A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Hamburg completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at New York Hospital/Cornell University Medical Center. Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, she was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine, the New York Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Hamburg is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American College of Physicians. She is a member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers.

Brown alumnus James S. Zisson ’74 and his wife established and endowed the Barnes Lectureship in Public Health in memory of Norma and Miles Zisson ’38. The lectureship honors the late Frederick Barnes, M.D., a founding faculty member of the Brown Medical School, and his late wife, Catherine.

The Brown Medical School Public Health Program, in conjunction with the Brown University Department of Community Health and Public Health Research Day, sponsors the lecture. In addition, the lecture is supported in part by the Charles O. Cooke Distinguished Visiting Lectureship.

For more information on the lecture, call (401) 863-1634.

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