Richard Wilson was born in London, England in 1926. He got his D.Phil. in Oxford in 1949 with a thesis in nuclear physics. After postdoctoral research at Oxford, Rochester and Stanford, he accepted an appointment at Harvard in 1955 and since 1982 has been Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics. He carried out an extensive set of measurements in nuclear physics at the Harvard University Cyclotron. This was summarized in his book "Nucleon-nucleon interactions" (Wiley-Interscience) which was recently listed in the citation index as a most quoted book. Then he embarked on a program of electron scattering from hydrogen (protons) and deuterium (proton + neutron). In a collaboration (in Orsay, France) with Lehmann and Taylor, he was the first to perform a precise (2%) cross section measurement. Subsequently he was the first to analyze elastic scattering data in terms of the electric and magnetic form factors. In a review paper reanalyzing all data, he showed that the ratio of these form factors is almost independent of four momentum transfer. This was an important impetus to the theoretical idea of the partial symmetry SU6. Subsequently he extended these measurements to higher momentum transfers.

 He was an early enthusiast for electron-positron colliding beams and with others at the Cambridge Electron Accelerator "by-pass" project, produced in 1972 the first measurement of the extra "charm" degree of freedom, by finding an unexpectedly large cross section for electron-positron annihilation. This was subsequently dramatically confirmed at SLAC. He collaborated in this field with scientists at the Cornell University Storage ring, CESR, with the CLEO detector until summer 2001.

 In the last 25 years, he has spent much time in a number of scientific issues closer to public policy. In 1970 he joined with others in converting the Harvard University Cyclotron from nuclear physics use to medical treatment. He was the first Chairman and still remains a member of the cyclotron operating committee. This cyclotron has now treated over 7,000 patients with heavy charged particles. The treatments are being copied in many other centers, in Loma Linda, Japan, Calleridge, UK, Nice, France, Orsay, France, Switzerland, Moscow and St. Petersburg (229,342,388,396).

As a result of his interest in these medical treatments, and radiation oncology in general, he was asked to be Chairman of the visiting committee of the radiation medicine department at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) from 1983- 2000, and he still remains a member.

He has also been involved with various aspects of energy policy, and in particular in explaining nuclear power and nuclear safety to the public. He was Chairman of a committee of the American Physical Society to study the "Radiological consequences of severe nuclear power accidents" (341). He was one of the first foreigners to visit Chernobyl after the accident in 1986 (389), and helped to make a TV film about the situation. He has written extensively since about the accident (475,485,501). He helped to found the Sakharov College of Radioecology (now the International Sakharov Environmental University) in Minsk, Belarus.and became the first Chairman (and is now an honorary member) of an International Advisory Committee.    He also chaired an advisory committee for the Minister of Economic Affairs of the Republic of China, on the operation of the nuclear power plants in Taiwan. He has worked in particular on possible effects of low doses of radiation on public health (457,470,471). He was one of the first foreign visitors to Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains and has written about  the effects of the radiation accidents (747), and occupational doses there (458).

He has been an early writer in the field of Risk Analysis (174,227) and is a founder member of the Society of Risk Analysis. In this, he has been a pioneer in the use of comparing risks to aid in their understanding (212,406). He has lectured on this subject in over 25 countries. In 1990 he was awarded the "Forum Award" of the American Physical Society, for "his outstanding research and promotion of public understanding on a broad spectrum of issues dealing with physics, the environment, and public health, including his work on reactor safety, estimation of hazards posed by environmental pollution and pioneering use of comparative risk analysis" (454). He was given the Distinguished Service Award of the Society of Risk Analysis in December 1993.   The book "Risk-Benefit Analysis" (717) was published in 2001 and distributed by Harvard University Press.

 He has also written on details of risk assessment of chemical carcinogens (437,440), and in particular on the controversial question of how the risk to humans of chemically produced cancer may be logically derived from the data on animal bioassays (211,363,460,479). In this he has emphasized the unusual role of arsenic in that the carcinogenicity could not have been predicted from animal data. In all of this he emphasizes proper attention to uncertainty (305,327).

 He has always been attentive to global environmental issues such as global air pollution and acid rain. His early book on "Health Effects of Fossil Fuel Burning" (225) helped to stimulate work that tends to confirm the idea that acid (probably sulfate) particulates are a major detriment to human health (244). A second book "Particles in our Air" (636) was published in 1996 and distributed by Harvard University Press.

He served as the first Director (1988-1993) of the NE Regional Center of the National Institute of Global Environmental Change and written about the policy issues of global change (486).

He has served on a dozen government advisory committees in many different agencies and countries. As a member of the Board of Directors of the Sakharov Foundation he has visited and lectured in many third world and developing countries.

His experience in physics gives him a sound understanding of all types of data, the statistical methods and problems in the analysis. The work with radiation gives him a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of epidemiology, and how to set up studies to avoid statistical traps. His work with radiation oncology gives him a feeling for the necessity of treating each person as an individual while making the statistical analysis.
 
 

174. "Examples in Risk Benefit Analysis", New Scientist (1975); also in Chemtech, Journal of the American Chemical Society (1975).

 211. "Interspecies Comparison of Carcinogenic Potency," with E. Crouch, J. of Tox. and Environ. Health, 5:1095-1118, 1979.

212. "The Daily Risks of Life," Technology Review, March 1979.

225. Health Effects of Fossil Fuel Burning: Assessment and Mitigation,with S.D. Colome, J.D. Spengler and D.G. Wilson, Ballinger Publishing Company: Cambridge, MA (1981).

227. Risk/Benefit Analysis, with E.A.C. Crouch, Ballinger Publishing Company: Cambridge, MA (1982).

229. "Rx: The Cyclotron," Harvard Magazine, pp. 58-62, Nov.-Dec. 1979.

244. "Health Effects of Fossil Fuel Burning," The Env. Prof., 2d, 224 (1980).

305. "The Risks of Drinking Water," with E.A.C. Crouch and L. Zeise, Water Resources Research, 19, 1359 (1983).

327. "Uncertainty in Risk Assessment," with E.A.C. Crouch and L. Zeise, Banbury Report 19, 133 (1985).

341. "Report to The American Physical Society of the Study Group on radionuclide release from severe accidents at nuclear power plants", Reviews of Modern Physics, 57, 3, pt. II, July 1985.

342. "Potential for low LET charged particle radiation therapy in cancer", with Michael Goitein, Herman D. Suit, Evangelos Gragoudas, Andreas Koehler, Rad. Research, Vol. 104, pp. F297-F309 (1985).

363. "Problems in Interspecies Comparisons," with E. Crouch, in Mechanisms of DNA Damage and Repair, Implications for Carcinogenesis and Risk Assessment, Ed. M. Simic, L. Grossman, and A. Upton, New York: Plenum Press, 1986, p. 543.

389. "A Visit to Chernobyl," Science, 236, 1636 (1987).

396. "Proton Beam Treatment Facility for Tumors of the Eye," A.M. Koehler, E. Gragoudas, B. Gottschalk, J. Munzenrider, J. Sisterson, M. Wagner, R. Wilson, presented at the Second International Meeting on Diagnosis and Treatment of Intraocular Tumors, Nyon, Switzerland (Nov. 1987).

406. "Risk Assessment and Comparisons,: An Introduction," with E.A.C. Crouch, Hazard Prevention, p. 14, March/April 1988 (reprint of 378).

437. "Do Mouse liver tumors predict rat tumors? A study of concordance between tumors induced in different sites in rats and mice." D.M.Byrd, E.A.C. Crouch, Richard Wilson, Mouse Liver Carcinogenisis: Mechanisms and Species Comparisons, p. 19-41, Alan R. Liss, Inc., 1990.

440. "Consistencies and Inconsistencies underlying the quantitative assessment of leukemia risk from benzene exposure" S.H.Lamm, A.S Walters, Richard Wilson, D.M.Byrd and Hans Grunwald, Environmental Health Perspectives, 82, 289, 1989.

452. "First Review of the Mature Field of Nucleon-Nucleon Interactions", R. Wilson, Current Contents 21, 20 (1990).

454. "Comparing Risks - A Hazardous Undertaking", Forum Award Lecture, R. Wilson, Physics and Society 19, 3 (1990).

457. "Leukemias in Plymouth County, Massachusetts", R. Wilson, letter to the editor. Health Physics 61, 279 (1991).

458. "Radiation Doses and Cancer", A. Shylakhter, R. Wilson, Nature 350, 25 (1991).

460. "Predicting the Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Humans from Rodent Bioassay Data", G. Goodman, R. Wilson. Environ. Health Perspect. 94: 195 (1991).

470. "Is There a Large Risk of Radiation? A Critical Review of Pessimistic Claims", A. Shihab-Eldin, A. Shlyakhter, R. Wilson. Environmental International, 18, 117-151 (1992).

479. "Quantitative Prediction of Human Cancer Risk from Rodent Carcinogenic Potencies: A Closer Look at the Epidemiological Evidence for some Chemicals Not Definitively Carcinogenic in Humans". G. Goodman, R. Wilson, Regul. Toxicol. Pharmacol. 14, 118 (1991).

485. "Chernobyl and Glasnost: The Effects of Secrecy on Health and Safety", A. Shlyakhter and R. Wilson, Environment 34, 25-30 (1992).

501. "Chernobyl: The Inevitable Results of Secrecy", A. Shlyakhter, R. Wilson.  Public Understand. Sci. 1 251-259 (1992).

563. "Integrated Risk Analysis of Global Climate Change", A. Shlyakhter, L.J. Valverde, Jr., R. Wilson, Chemosphere, 30 1585-1618 (1995).

634. "Particles in our Air: Concentrations and Health Effects", ed: J.D. Spengler and R.Wilson, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA (1996)

717. Risk-Benefit Analysis 2nd Edition  E.A.C. Crouch and R. Wilson (Harvard University Press 2001)

747. "Radioactive Contamination of the Techa River and Its Effects"  D. Burmistrov, M Kossenko and R. Wilson, Technology,
7:553-575 (2000)

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