Ellen Silbergeld
American academic and biologist
Ellen Kovner Silbergeld (born 1945) is a leading American expert in the field of environmental health.
Background
Elizabeth Kovner was born in 1945. Her parents were Joseph Kovner, a lawyer (then with the Congress of Industrial Organizations) and Mary Helen Gion. She has two siblings.
After graduating from Vassar College summa cum laude in 1967, she earned a Ph.D. in environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University in 1972.
Career
She is a professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and used to be on the faculty at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Before that she worked as a scientist for Environmental Defense. She was editor-in-chief of the journal Environmental Research she serves on many other editorial boards
She is an authority on the toxicological manifestations of lead and mercury poisoning, having done some of the first research on how lead affects the central nervous system. Silbergeld has also been involved in public policy and raised public awareness of the dangers of lead. Her current research focuses on the role is food animal production in the selection and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ellen Silbergeld” is american academic and biologist. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ellen, Silbergeld and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american academic and biologist” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5365011. VIAF identifies the subject as 167225318. The Library of Congress control number is n87892201. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945, 1967 and 1972.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ellen Silbergeld”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ellen Silbergeld primary sources, Ellen Silbergeld archive and Ellen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ellen Silbergeld”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ellen Silbergeld” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.