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Linda Birnbaum speaks at UNC
Linda Birnbaum, PhD
Linda Birnbaum, PhD, DABT, ATS, Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program Division, Spoke at UNC Friday. We were delighted to host her at the SPH. Dr. Birnbaum’s thesis was that you can have it all, but you don’t have to do it all. She’s an incredibly successful scientist who was elected to the Institute of Medicine and has received many awards that reflect her stature as a scientist and science leader. A lot of the women in audience, and it was mostly women, were grateful that she spoke openly about the importance of family, and about how she and her husband had made decisions, especially early in their careers, that reflected the importance of their family and religion.
A couple questions by younger women asked whether it is possible to have it all today, when it is so difficult to get funded. I don’t know. I don’t think most people can have it all. We make our own choices, and usually, we give something up in the process. People often tell me not to work so hard. It’s a choice, and a choice I’ve made, because I really believe in what I am doing. If the life we live isn’t by choice, then, we should try to fix that. Of course, not all women who live on this earth today have those choices. In a way, having that choice is having it all!
Off to Cambridge, England for a lightning fast trip to explore possible collaborations.
Happy Monday!
Barbara
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The views expressed in this blog are Barbara Rimer’s alone and do not represent the views and policies of The University of North Carolina or the Gillings School.