Jeanne Guillemin
Encyclopedia
Jeanne Harley Guillemin (born 1943) is a medical anthropologist, who for twenty-five years was a Professor of Sociology at Boston College
and for the last ten years, a senior fellow in the Security Studies Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. While at Boston College, she did extensive research on hospital technology and medical ethics, receiving fellowships to work on the US Senate Finance Committee staff and at the Hastings Center for the Study of Ethics. She was also co-head of the National Library of Medicine's HealthAware Project, a joint project with Harvard Medical School to test how the internet could be used to educate people about preventive health measures.
In the late 1980s, interested in the misuse of biomedical science, she became involved in two investigations of alleged violations of international arms control agreements by the Soviet Union which involved germ weapons. The first was "yellow rain" accusation by the United States against the USSR, to the effect that the Soviets enabled the Laotian army used deadly mycotoxins to attack Hmong refugees allied with the US during the Vietnam War. This accusation foundered when the team with which Guillemin was working discovered that the yellow material was actually bee feces mistaken for a biological weapon by those under attack and by certain US government scientists. In 1992, Guillemin became part of an investigation into another Cold War controversy, the 1979 outbreak of anthrax in Sverdlovsk, a closed Soviet city in the Ural mountains. The Soviet government claimed the cause was infected meat. Guillemin's interviews with the families of victims (64 people were recorded as dying) resulted in an epidemiological map showing the source to be an air-borne release of anthrax spores from a military facility where, in violation of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, the testing of anthrax weapons had been in process. In 1994, the results of this research were published in Science and in 1999 her book on this research was published ("Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak," U of California Press).
After 9/11, with the advent of the anthrax letter attacks, Guillemin was frequently asked by the media to explain the disease, based on her experience in Russia. In 2005 she published "Biological Weapons: From State-sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterorism, Columbia U Press) which offers a concise, comprehensive history of how anthrax and other microbes were developed as weapons over the course of the 20th century, resulting in potential bioterrorism. She turned her attention to the 2001 anthrax letter attacks after the 2008 suicide of the FBI's prime suspect, an anthrax scientist who worked for the U.S. Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Her third book on biological weapons is about the letters and their impact on victims and government organizations. It is called "American Anthrax: Fear, Crime, and the Investigation of the Nation's Deadliest Bioterror Attack," (Macmillan/Holt/Times, 2011). To learn more about this book, visit its web site: http://americananthrax.com.
Jeanneis married to noted Harvard geneticist and molecular biologist Matthew Meselson
.
Guillemin wrote introductions to new editions of:
Guillemin edited:
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
and for the last ten years, a senior fellow in the Security Studies Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. While at Boston College, she did extensive research on hospital technology and medical ethics, receiving fellowships to work on the US Senate Finance Committee staff and at the Hastings Center for the Study of Ethics. She was also co-head of the National Library of Medicine's HealthAware Project, a joint project with Harvard Medical School to test how the internet could be used to educate people about preventive health measures.
In the late 1980s, interested in the misuse of biomedical science, she became involved in two investigations of alleged violations of international arms control agreements by the Soviet Union which involved germ weapons. The first was "yellow rain" accusation by the United States against the USSR, to the effect that the Soviets enabled the Laotian army used deadly mycotoxins to attack Hmong refugees allied with the US during the Vietnam War. This accusation foundered when the team with which Guillemin was working discovered that the yellow material was actually bee feces mistaken for a biological weapon by those under attack and by certain US government scientists. In 1992, Guillemin became part of an investigation into another Cold War controversy, the 1979 outbreak of anthrax in Sverdlovsk, a closed Soviet city in the Ural mountains. The Soviet government claimed the cause was infected meat. Guillemin's interviews with the families of victims (64 people were recorded as dying) resulted in an epidemiological map showing the source to be an air-borne release of anthrax spores from a military facility where, in violation of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, the testing of anthrax weapons had been in process. In 1994, the results of this research were published in Science and in 1999 her book on this research was published ("Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak," U of California Press).
After 9/11, with the advent of the anthrax letter attacks, Guillemin was frequently asked by the media to explain the disease, based on her experience in Russia. In 2005 she published "Biological Weapons: From State-sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterorism, Columbia U Press) which offers a concise, comprehensive history of how anthrax and other microbes were developed as weapons over the course of the 20th century, resulting in potential bioterrorism. She turned her attention to the 2001 anthrax letter attacks after the 2008 suicide of the FBI's prime suspect, an anthrax scientist who worked for the U.S. Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Her third book on biological weapons is about the letters and their impact on victims and government organizations. It is called "American Anthrax: Fear, Crime, and the Investigation of the Nation's Deadliest Bioterror Attack," (Macmillan/Holt/Times, 2011). To learn more about this book, visit its web site: http://americananthrax.com.
Jeanneis married to noted Harvard geneticist and molecular biologist Matthew Meselson
Matthew Meselson
Matthew Stanley Meselson is an American geneticist and molecular biologist whose research was important in showing how DNA replicates, recombines and is repaired in cells. In his mature years, he has been an active chemical and biological weapons activist and consultant...
.
Books
"Guillemin, Jeanne, "American Anthrax", Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2011.- Guillemin, Jeanne, Urban Renegades: The Cultural Strategy of American Indians, Columbia University Press, 19?? (New edition, 1975).
- Guillemin, Jeanne Harley and Lynda Lytle Holmstrom, Mixed Blessings: Intensive Care for Newborns, Oxford University Press, 1986.
- Guillemin, Jeanne, Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak, BerkeleyBerkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, University of California PressUniversity of California PressUniversity of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
, 1999. - Guillemin, Jeanne, Anthrax and Smallpox: Comparison of Two Outbreaks, National Technical Information ServiceNational Technical Information ServiceThe National Technical Information Service is an agency within the United States Department of Commerce that serves as the U.S. government repository for research and development results and for other information produced by and for the government as well as a variety of public and private sources...
, 2002. - Guillemin, Jeanne, Biological Weapons: From the Invention of State-sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterrorism, Columbia University Press, 2005.
Guillemin wrote introductions to new editions of:
- Mead, MargaretMargaret MeadMargaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
, Kinship in the Admiralty Islands, In Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural HistoryAmerican Museum of Natural HistoryThe American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
, Volume 34, Issue 2 pages 181-358; American Museum of Natural HistoryAmerican Museum of Natural HistoryThe American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
( AMNH ), New York, 1934 [Transaction Publishers edition, 2001]. - Brown, Fredric Joseph, Chemical Warfare: A Study in Restraints, Princeton University PressPrinceton University Press-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
, 1968; [Transaction Publishers edition, 2005].
Guillemin edited:
- Guillemin, Jeanne (ed.), Anthropological Realities: Readings in the Science of Culture, Transaction Publishers, 1980.