Larry L. Needham 1945–2010

Larry L. Needham, a strong scientist and a staunch advocate for the use of exposure science in public health, passed away on 23 October 2010 after a 2‑year battle with renal cell carcinoma. He will be remem‑ bered as a scientist with great vision who had the ability to develop and sustain impact‑ ful research programs that provided a strong underpinning for furthering exposure science. These programs served as the bedrock of environ mental health throughout the past several decades. Needham graduated from Middle Tennessee College and earned his doctorate in Organic Chemistry from the University of Georgia (UGA). After two post doctoral fellowships at Vanderbilt University and UGA, he spent a short time as an assistant professor at Auburn University and as a chem‑ ist at General Electric. Needham then joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1976. Throughout his 34‑year career in environmental health, Needham always approached his research with dedication and creativity, managing to develop the premier laboratory for biological monitoring of exposure and to sustain its growth and productivity by mentoring scientists in the field. Furthermore, he con‑ tinued to broaden his knowledge and experience base to envelop other areas of exposure analysis. Needham's contributions were significant and substantial, and only ceased when he was too critically ill to work. His contributions had a profound influence on strategic planning and on specific programs and issues. He developed innovative and highly refined approaches for assessing exposure to environ mental toxicants. Some specific examples of his most noted scientific contributions are mentioned below. The chemical terrorism laboratory at the CDC has its roots with Needham. In the mid‑1990s, Needham recognized the potential threat of chemical warfare agents, such as nerve agents, and implemented a program to develop and vali date methodology to measure metabolites of the five most common nerve agents: sarin, soman, tabun, cyclosarin, and VX. He was responsible for the laboratory developing methods for monitoring mustard gas, trichothecene mycotoxins, and marine toxins, and the initial setup of the Laboratory Response Network for chemical terrorism was conducted under his direction. Subsequently, several chemical terrorism biomonitoring methods were transferred to state health departments. Had it not been for Needham's foresight, the capacity of the CDC and state health departments to respond to chemical terrorism events would not exist, and many critical response needs would not be available. Needham also successfully grew the CDC pesticide program …