NCRP

ROBERT L. BRENT

ROBERT L. BRENT

Brent R

is the Distinguished Professor, Louis and Bess Stein Professor of Pediatrics, Radiology and Pathology at the Jefferson Medical College, Director of the Clinical and Environmental Teratology Laboratories at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware. Robert Brent was born in Rochester, New York in 1927, received his AB (1949); MD with honor (1953), a PhD (1955) in radiation biology and embryology and Honorary DSc degrees from the University of Rochester and the Jefferson Medical College. From 1944 to 1954 he worked in the cosmic ray research laboratories of the physics department and as a research associate in the genetics and embryology divisions of the Manhattan Project of the University of Rochester, where he began his studies on the teratogenic effects of ionizing radiation. As a graduate student he was appointed the Head of the embryology section of the medical school’s atomic energy facility. He was the first research (1953) and clinical fellow (1954) of the March of Dimes involved in congenital malformations research. He spent his army tour at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research as Chief of Radiation Biology (1955 to 1957).

He came to Jefferson in 1957 and has received every award that Jefferson can offer a faculty member, and for having received continuous federal research funding as a principal investigator for his entire research career. In 1989, he was named the third Distinguished Professor in Jefferson’s 188 year history.

He was elected to NCRP in 1973. In 2006 he delivered the L.S. Taylor Lecture, having already received the highest honor of the Teratology Society and the Health Physics Society. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1996. He was the editor of “Teratology” for 17 years, and has been invited to China five times and to Japan seven times as a Visiting Lecturer and has had invited lectureships in 27 countries. In 1994 he was selected by the Chinese government as the President of the first International Congress on Birth Defects in China. Dr. Brent will receive the John Scott Award of the American Philosophical Society on November 22, 2013 for his research pertaining to the environmental causes of birth defects but especially for his early research that indicated that the embryo was less vulnerable to the carcinogenic effect of ionizing radiation than the child or adult.

Dr. Brent’s greatest recognition has come from his research, publications and lecturing. He is the most frequently consulted authority on the effects of radiation on the embryo and is frequently consulted about other possible teratogenic exposures. His research on the effects of radiation on the embryo demonstrated the no-effect dose for congenital malformations, established that radiation effects on the embryo were due to the direct effects of the radiation, and demonstrated some of the characteristics of the “all-or-none period” of embryonic development.

His writings in the field of litigation concerning the proper role of an expert witness were important. As one of the defense experts in the Bendectin litigation, his testimony contributed to the famous Daubert decision that allowed judges to reject the testimony of junk scientists. His publications include six books and monographs, five movies, 458 publications, and over 400 abstracts.