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Upton Arthur C. E-mail: acupton@eohsi.rutgers.edu
Dr. Arthur C. Upton, M.D., received his degree in Medicine from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1946, where he subsequently completed a rotating internship and residency in Pathology. In 1950 he was appointed as an Instructor of Pathology at the University of Michigan Medical School, and in 1952 he was certified by the American Board of Pathology, as a specialist in Anatomical Pathology.
In 1951 Dr Upton joined the Biology Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. There, as the Chief of the Pathology-Physiology Section, he was responsible for mounting and directing an extensive series of investigations into the types, nature, mechanisms, and health impacts of the various biological effects of ionizing radiation.
In 1969 Dr. Upton became Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pathology in the newly developing Health Sciences Center of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he served as Dean of the School of the School of Basic Health Sciences from 1971 to 1975. In the latter capacity, he played a major role in the recruitment of faculty, development of curricula, and construction of facilities for the newly developing Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Basic Health Sciences, Nursing, and Allied Health Professions. Throughout the same period, Dr. Upton worked closely with colleagues at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he served as an Associate Pathologist, and at which he spent a sabbatical leave in 1975.
In 1977, appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the Directorship of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Upton became responsible for overseeing the nation’s broad program of research into the nature, causes, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. In this capacity, he worked to strengthen ties between cancer investigators in the U.S. and those in other countries and to nurture the productivity of the efforts of all concerned. The studies in question included research on the carcinogenic effects of ionizing radiation in the Japanese atomic bomb survivors and various other irradiated populations.
From 1980 to 1992 Dr. Upton served as Professor and Chairman of Environmental Medicine and Director of the Institute of Environmental Medicine at the New York University Medical Center. In addition to his duties there as a teacher, investigator, and departmental chairman, he was responsible for serving as the Principal Investigator of Center Grants to the Institute from the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Dana Foundation. The research supported in part by these grants encompassed a broad spectrum of investigations into the biological effects of environmental agents, including the measurement and adverse health effects of ionizing radiation on cultured cells, laboratory animals, and various human populations.
On retiring from New York University in 1992, Dr. Upton moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he joined the faculty of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine as an Adjunct Professor of Pathology and Radiology. In the latter capacity, he collaborated with Dr. Fred Mettler, Chairman of the Department of Radiology, in producing the 2nd edition of the book “Medical effects of Ionizing Radiation,” a comprehensive treatise on the acute and long-term effects of ionizing radiation on humans.
In 1995, Dr. Upton was recruited back to the East coast to join colleagues at the University of Medicine and Dentistry- Robert Wood Medical School in developing and implementing the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation, a multi-university research program aimed at the development of a methodology for involving stakeholders in the assessment of the risks to human health and the ecosystem at nuclear weapons sites, in ways that would address the stakeholders’ concerns and provide them with an adequate understanding of the risks in question. Dr. Upton’s role in this ongoing effort has been to chair an independent, multi-disciplinary, blue-ribbon peer review committee comprised of leading experts drawn from academic and other organizations throughout the nation. As such, Dr. Upton and the members of his committee have remained abreast of the Consortium’s research but have not been directly involved in it as participants.
In the course of his career, Dr. Upton has published more than 390 scientific articles, books, book chapters, and other reports in the open literature, most of which have dealt in one way or another with carcinogenesis and the carcinogenic effects of ionizing radiation. In addition, he has played an active role in the professional organizations within his field and has served as a member of numerous national and international advisory committees, and study groups concerned with the health effects of radiation and other environmental agents. Included among the latter are the International Commission on Radiological Protection (on which he served as a member of various committees from 1960 to 1978, and as a member of the Main Commission from 1973 to 1978); various National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council Committees on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation, over the period 1957-1991 (including Chairmanship of the BEIR V Committee); and various committees of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (on which he served as a member of the Board of Directors between 1974 and 1991, and as Chairman of Scientific Committee 1-6, on the Linearity of the Dose-Response Relationship, from 1996 to 1991).
Although still affiliated with New York University, as an emeritus professor of Environmental Medicine, and with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, as a Clinical Professor of Environmental and Community Medicine, Dr. Upton is semi-retired. As a result, he is able to devote the bulk of his time and effort to other responsibilities, including The Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder participation (CRESP) and consulting work, if and when needed.
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