Marvin Goldman (born May 2, 1928 in New York City) is an American radiation biologist, known for "his highly significant contributions to the understanding of the effects of bone-seeking radionuclides—in carcinogenic characteristics of long-term

strontium-90 Strontium-90 () is a radioactive isotope of strontium produced by nuclear fission, with a half-life of 28.8 years. It undergoes β− decay into yttrium-90, with a decay energy of 0.546 MeV. Strontium-90 has applications in medicine and ...

exposures."

Education and career

Marvin Goldman grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from

Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It was founded in 1786 as Erasmus Hall Aca ...

. He received in 1949 a bachelor's degree in biology from Adelphi College (now named

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher edu ...

) and in 1949 an M.S. in zoology-physiology from the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...

. From 1949 to 1951 at the University of Maryland he was a graduate student supported by a fellowship to study aviation physiology. In 1951 he began working in

Operation Buster–Jangle Operation Buster–Jangle was a series of seven (six atmospheric, one cratering) nuclear weapons tests conducted by the United States in late 1951 at the Nevada Test Site. ''Buster–Jangle'' was the first joint test program between the DOD ...

at the

Nevada Test Site The Nevada National Security Site (N2S2 or NNSS), known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the ...

to determine the pulmonary effects in animals exposed to fallout from nuclear weapons tests. In 1951, with two colleagues, he made the first detection of

plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhib ...

in lung tissue from animals that inhaled dust from U.S. nuclear bomb tests. After leaving the Nevada Test Site, he completed in 1957 his Ph.D. in radiation biology at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...

. His thesis advisor was Newell Stannard. In December 1958 Goldman, with his wife and new-born child, moved to

Davis, California Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of California, Da ...

; the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

(UC Davis) hired him as a radiation biologist. He worked on a long-term project to determine the effects on beagles of low-level, chronic exposure to strontium-90. He has "consulted for the European Commission, the White House, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy." His research in pollutant toxicity and radiation biology includes "long-term effects of strontium-90 and

radium-226 Radium (88Ra) has no stable or nearly stable isotopes, and thus a standard atomic weight cannot be given. The longest lived, and most common, isotope of radium is 226Ra with a half-life of . 226Ra occurs in the decay chain of 238U (often referre ...

; hot particles; the effects of fossil-fuel effluents; biomedical models for risk assessment; toxicity of organophosphate agents; whole-body counting and gamma ray spectrometry; thermoluminescent dosimetry; and radiation effects on cells." He holds a patent in X-ray fluorescent spectrometry and is the author or co-author of more than 100 articles. In 1972 Goldman was one of five recipients of the

Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award was established in 1959 in honor of a scientist who helped elevate American physics to the status of world leader in the field. E. O. Lawrence was the inventor of the cyclotron, an accelerator of subatomic par ...

from the Atomic Energy Commission. For the academic year 1994–1995 he was the president of the

Health Physics Society The Health Physics Society (HPS) is a nonprofit scientific professional organization whose mission is excellence in the science and practice of radiation safety. It is based in the United States and the specific purposes of the society's activit ...

. In 1996 he was elected a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsi ...

Selected publications

* * * * * * * * * * 1988 * * 1996 * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldman, Marvin 1928 births Living people Erasmus Hall High School alumni Adelphi University alumni University of Maryland, College Park alumni University of Rochester alumni University of California, Davis faculty Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Health physicists Health Physics Society