Marvin Goldman

Marvin Goldman (May 2, 1928 – July 20, 2026) was 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 exposures."

Life and career

Marvin Goldman was born on May 2, 1928, in Brooklyn, New York City, where he was raised. He graduated from Erasmus Hall High School. Goldman received in 1949 a bachelor's degree in biology from Adelphi College (now named Adelphi University) and in 1949 an M.S. in zoology-physiology from the University of Maryland, College Park. 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 at the Nevada Test Site 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 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. His thesis advisor was Newell Stannard.

In December 1958 Goldman, with his wife and new-born child, moved to Davis, California; the University of California, Davis (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.

In 1972 Goldman was one of five recipients of the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award from the Atomic Energy Commission. For the academic year 1994–1995 he was the president of the Health Physics Society. In 1996 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Goldman died on July 20, 2026, at the age of 98.

Selected publications

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Hefner, Loretta; Gourley, Karoline. "DOE/EH-0468, Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years, Oral History of Radiation, Oral History of Radiation Biologist Marvin Goldman, Conducted December 22, 1994". United States Department of Energy, Office of Human Radiation Experiments.
  2. 1 2 "Marvin Goldman, 1972". The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, U.S. Department of Energy.
  3. ↑ Smith, Falconer; Boddy, D. W.; Goldman, Marvin (1952). Biological Injury from Particle Inhalation. No. WT-396 (Del. 2). National Inst. of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, Bethesda, Md. OSTI 4184871.
  4. ↑ "Health Physics Society Board of Directors" (PDF). hps.org.
  5. ↑ "Historic Fellows". American Association for the Advancement of Science.
  6. ↑ "Marvin Goldman". The Davis Enterprise. 31 July 2026. Retrieved 25 October 2026.