Abstract
The toxicology community recently lost a true friend, pioneer, and advocate. Mildred Stoehr Christian, PhD, Fellow, ATS, died March 26, 2009, after battling breast cancer for over a year.
Dr Christian was born and raised in Philadelphia, graduated from Kensington High School for Girls, Penn State University with BSc and MS degrees, and from Thomas Jefferson University with a PhD in developmental anatomy. Dr Christian began her professional career with McNeil Laboratories. In 1979, she founded and became president of Argus Research Laboratories, Argus International in 1980, the Center for Photobiology at Argus in 1989, and Argus Health Products, LLC in 2003.
As members of the American College of Toxicology and readers of this Journal know, Mildred was the Founding Editor of the International Journal of Toxicology and was its Editor-in-Chief for 10 years. Dr Christian is a Past-President of the Teratology Society, as well as a founding member of the Society of Toxicology’s Reproductive Toxicology Specialty Section. She has edited and/or contributed to several major textbooks and is the author of over 110 manuscripts and abstracts published in American and international journals. Dr Christian held academic appointments as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, and as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Among the numerous honors and awards that were bestowed on Dr Christian during her career was the Life Services Award of the American College of Toxicology in 2004. She was also recognized with the Alumni of the Year award by Thomas Jefferson University for her contributions to development of the International Conference for Harmonization Guidelines for Toxicity in Reproduction, and was awarded an Honorary Membership in the Society for Quality Assurance for her efforts to coordinate the fields of toxicology and quality assurance.
Mildred was an extraordinary person, who will be sorely missed but long remembered.