The Evolution of an Environmental Scientist
Rosina M. Bierbaum was always mindful of pollution and other environmental matters growing up in Pennsylvania, so perhaps it’s no surprise that she made a career of it.
Published September 1, 2007
By Rosina M. Bierbaum, as told to Abigail Jeffries
Academy Contributors
I grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a steel town, as the middle of five children. We lived only two blocks from the main steel plant, so I was exposed to air pollution issues from a very early age. Particulates in the air coated our cars and windowsills every day, so my siblings and I were constantly dusting! This was before the Clean Air Act.
At age 11 my interest in the environment blossomed when I read Rachel Carson’s other book, The Sea Around Us. I became very concerned about the preservation of aquatic and marine ecosystems. My father’s boat store afforded me many opportunities to study the Pocono Mountain lakes, and increasing signs of pollution worried me.
My ninth grade biology teacher was my first mentor, and a real gem. She arranged for students to work in local college labs on weekends. We studied Drosophila genetics, synthesized aspirin, and tried not to explode things; I really got hooked on science.
After taking an ecology summer course at LaSalle College at age 14, I entered—and won!—local and national science fairs with projects examining how irradiation affected the interaction of algae and bacteria. Using a meat sterilization lamp in my grandfather’s butcher store, I discovered that there were some antibiotic properties in the algae Chlorella that were destroyed by ultraviolet radiation. I went on to major in both biology and English at Boston College and pursued a PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology at SUNY, Stony Brook.
A Shift to the Science-Policy World
By then, my career goal was to conduct research on marine invertebrates in a beautiful coastal setting for the rest of my life. But one of my many mentors, Dr. Bentley Glass, admonished me to participate in the science-policy world. Since I didn’t even read a daily newspaper then, he essentially embarrassed me into applying for a Congressional fellowship, which I, somewhat unhappily at the time, won. So, I left the ivory tower, but what an epiphany awaited!
In those 20 subsequent years working for the Congress and then the White House, I learned that science is not the loudest voice, that civic scientists must be ready to translate the relevance of technical information to whatever policy issue is urgent, and that one must ensure scientists are at the table when decisions about budgets, treaties, policies, and regulations are made. Economists and lawyers were routinely consulted, but it took some persistence to ensure scientists became part of the group of usual suspects.
I left my position as acting director of the White House Science Office in 2001 to return to academia to train the next generation of environmental leaders in the way I wish I had been educated when I went to DC— not just to know a narrow slice of science but to be able to speak the languages of economics, policy, law, engineering, and negotiation.
That’s my mission now, to combine social sciences, natural sciences, and design in an integrated education to enable tomorrow’s leaders to achieve a sustainable planet.
Also read: The Environmental Impact of ‘Silent Spring’
About the Authors
Rosina M. Bierbaum is the Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from the State University of New York, Stony Brook and has been a member of the Academy since 2000.
Abigail Jeffries is a freelance science and health reporter living in Tolland, CT.
