John B. Little
Dr. John B. Little received his AB degree in physics from Harvard University and MD from Boston University in 1955, followed by an internship in medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and a residency in radiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Known as Jack to his friends, Dr. Little joined the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health in 1965, where he was the James Stevens Simmons Professor of Radiobiology, former Chair of the Department of Cancer Cell Biology, and the Director of the Research and Training Program in Radiation Biology.
He also served for 16 years as the Director of the Kresge Center for Environmental Health at Harvard, and is currently Director of the Center for Radiation Sciences and Environmental Health.
Dr. Little is Past President of the Radiation Research Society. He served on many advisory committees, councils, and editorial boards, and has Chaired the Board of Radiation Effects Research of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, the Science Council of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima, and the Board of Scientific Councilors of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Dr. Little's research includes the study of the mechanisms involved in the response of mammalian cells to ionizing radiation, with particular reference to its carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. He is known for his earlier studies on the repair of radiation damage in human normal and tumor cells, and for his characterization of mechanisms of malignant transformation and mutagenesis. His current research interests include the induction of genomic instability by radiation and the bystander effect. Dr. Little is the recipient of the Failla Award of the Radiation Research Society, and the Henry S. Kaplan Distinguished Scientist Award from the International Association for Radiation Research. He held an Outstanding Investigator Grant from the National Cancer Institute for 13 years. He has authored or coauthored over 480 scientific papers.
Dr. Little is now retired. A story in the Harvard Public Health Review in 2003 remarked:
"When Jack Little moved into his second-floor lab space of the brand-new Building I at the Harvard School of Public Health as a post-doctoral fellow back in August 1962, he took to it immediately. "I rather liked it there," the James Stevens Simmons Professor of Radiobiology, Emeritus, recalls. "The door was always open, and students and fellows could walk right on in." So Little decided to stay put. More than four decades would pass before he'd move again (this past April, to make way for floor-wide renovations). "I spent more than half my lifetime there and more than half the lifetime of the School," he muses.
"The potential emotional impact of the move was tempered by a bigger problem: "The hard part was deciding what to do with all that stuff!" Little exclaims. Piles upon piles of papers; scientific instruments from the 1920s onward; animal cages, feeders, and water bottles; photographs and children's creations from holidays past--all the charming detritus of a self-proclaimed "accumulator." Luckily, he's had help. The Countway Library will lovingly catalog more than 50 boxes of his personal correspondence and papers. The lab devices--both the antique and Little's own inventions--will go to the [Collection of] Historical [Scientific] Instruments Museum in Cambridge. And businessman Gerald Chan, a former student with an interest in Art Deco, has even offered to take all the salmon pink furnishings off Little's hands.
"With the advising of 42 doctoral students under his belt, not to mention all those previously enrolled in his staple Radiation Biology course, Little has become something of a historical institution himself. The phone rings off the hook with calls from former students, and people are always dropping by to see him."
<a href="http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/review/review_fall_03/viewslittle.html" target="_blank">online reference</a>.
<a href="http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/faculty/john-little/" target="_blank">online reference</a>.