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Debra Silverman

Debra T. Silverman is Chief of the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She received her doctorate in epidemiology from the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health and her masters in biostatistics from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Hygiene and Public Health.  She joined the NCI as a biostatistician in 1972, and has served as a cancer epidemiologist since 1983.  Dr. Silverman’s research is focused on better understanding three areas of cancer epidemiology: the carcinogenicity of diesel exhaust and the etiology of cancers of the bladder and pancreas.  She is author of over 300 papers and chapters in professional journals and books.  She currently leads two high impact studies, the New England Bladder Cancer Study and the Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study (DEMS). The New England Bladder Cancer Study is a complex multidisciplinary study designed to determine the reasons for excess bladder cancer risk in northern New England spanning five decades. DEMS provided, for the first time, the exposure-response relationship between diesel exhaust and lung cancer in humans based on quantitative estimates of historical exposure.  These findings played an influential role in the reclassification of diesel exhaust by IARC to a Group 1 carcinogen.  Dr. Silverman is the recipient of numerous awards including the NIH Director’s Award for “her groundbreaking 20-year study of the carcinogenic effects of diesel exhaust exposure” and the Harvard School of Public Health Alumni Award of Merit for the scientific importance and public health impact of her research.