Scientist, Environmentalist

I was born on May 27th 1907, near Springdale, Pennsylvania.
I graduated in 1929 with magna cum laude honors. I continued my studies in zoology and genetics at the Johns Hopkins University, earning a master's degree in zoology in 1932.
I taught zoology at Johns Hopkins and at the University of Maryland for several years, continuing to study towards my doctoral degree, particularly at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
In 1936 I outscored all other applicants on the civil service exam and was hired by the Bureau of Fisheries for a full-time, professional position, as a junior aquatic biologist.
My second book was The Sea Around Us. It remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 86 weeks, was abridged by Reader's Digest, won the 1952 National Book Award, and resulted in my being awarded two honorary doctorates. It was also made into a documentary film that was 61 minutes long and won an Oscar.
My most famous book, Silent Spring, was published in 1962. It was widely read (especially after its selection by the Book-of-the-Month Club and an endorsement by Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas), spent several weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, and inspired widespread public concerns with pesticides and pollution of the environment. Silent Spring facilitated the ban of the pesticide DDT in 1972 in the United States.
The book claimed detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds. I accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation, and public officials of accepting industry claims uncritically. I proposed a biotic approach to pest control as an alternative to DDT, claiming that DDT had been found to cause thinner egg shells and result in reproductive problems and death.
Silent Spring has made many lists of the best nonfiction books of the twentieth century. In the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Nonfiction it was at #5, and it was at #78 in the conservative National Review's list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the century. However, it was a "honorable mention" on conservative Human Events' "Ten Most Harmful Books of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries". Most recently, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 Greatest Science Books of All-Time by the editors of Discover Magazine.
In Silent Spring's re-release five years ago, former Vice President Al Gore wrote in the book's introduction that it marked "the beginning of the environmental movement" and showed the power of one person.
And in 1999, Time magazine named me one of its 100 most influential people of the 20th century.