Arlene Blum PhD
Founder and Executive Director, Green Science Policy Institute
Research Associate, UC Berkeley
She/her
Description: Rather than addressing the tens of thousands of chemicals in everyday products one at a time, the Six Classes approach educates decision makers in government and business about six chemical families containing many of the harmful substances in consumer products. Arlene Blum with the Green Science Policy Institute developed this approach to protect human and ecological health. The organohalogen classes-PFAS, some antimicrobials, and many flame retardants-are not found in mammalian biochemistry and are not recognized by efflux transporters which protect our cells from harmful substances. During this illustrated talk, you can learn how the Green Science Policy Institute’s scientific research, policy work, and communication strategy has contributed to preventing the use of organohalogens in products worldwide.
About the speaker: Arlene Blum PhD, environmental health scientist, author, and mountaineer is executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute and a Research Associate in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. The Institute’s scientific research and policy work with government and business has contributed to preventing the use of harmful chemicals in products world-wide.
Arlene Blum led the first American—and all-women’s—ascent of Annapurna I, considered one of the world’s most dangerous and difficult mountains, co-led the first women’s team to climb Denali; completed the Great Himalayan Traverse across the mountain regions of Bhutan, Nepal, and India; and hiked the length of the European Alps with her baby daughter on her back. She founded the annual Berkeley Himalayan Fair and is the author of Annapurna: A Woman’s Place and Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life.
Blum’s awards include her a 2022 Honorary Doctorate from the University of San Francisco, honorary membership in the American Alpine Club, 2018 induction into the California Hall of Fame, 2017 UC Berkeley International House Alumna of the Year, 2015 award for lifetime achievement of a Reed College graduate, selection by the UK Guardian as one of the “World’s 100 Most Inspiring Women”, National Women’s History Project selection as one of 100 “Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet,” selection as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, and election to the Hall of Mountaineering Excellence.
Arlene Blum received her BS in Chemistry from Reed College; her PhD in Biophysical chemistry from UC Berkeley.
Friday, October 11, 2024, 12:00-1:15pm Eastern
Field Auditorium, Room 1112, Grainger Hall (9 Circuit Drive, Durham, NC)
This seminar will also be presented live via Panopto. Click HERE for the livestream.