Emily Willingham

Emily Jane Willingham (born 1968) is a US journalist and scientist. Her writing focuses on neuroscience, genetics, psychology, health and medicine, and occasionally on evolution and ecology.[3]

Emily Jane Willingham
Born1968 (age 52–53)
Waco, Texas
Alma materUniversity of Texas at Austin
Known forScientific skepticism, work on endocrine disruptors
ChildrenThree
AwardsUT-Austin department of biological sciences professional development award, 1998
Scientific career
FieldsEndocrinology, urology
InstitutionsUCSF, Texas State University, St. Edward's University[1][2]
ThesisEmbryonic exposure to low-dose pesticides : dose response and effects on growth in the hatching red-eared slider turtle (2001)

She is the joint recipient with David Robert Grimes of the 2014 John Maddox Prize, awarded by science charity Sense About Science, for standing up for science in the face of personal attacks.[4]

Education

Willingham received her bachelor's degree in English in 1989 and her PhD in biology in 2001, both from the University of Texas at Austin. She completed a fellowship in pediatric urology at the University of California, San Francisco, from 2004 to 2006,[5][6] where she studied under Laurence S. Baskin.[1]

Writing

Willingham's work has been published online at Scientific American, Aeon, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, Slate, Undark, Knowable, The Scientist, and others and has appeared in print in several local, regional, and national outlets, including in single-issue publications for Centennial Media.[3]

Willingham was a contributor to the Forbes network for several years and ran an informal blog, "A Life Less Ordinary", which she started in 2007 and which published its last post on November 25, 2011.[7] At Forbes.com, Willingham focused on what she described as "the science they're selling you," which included the disproven link between vaccines and autism,[8] as well as the Seralini affair.[9] She has also written multiple articles for Slate.com about GMOs, childbirth, astronaut DNA, and autism, including about what the motivation might have been for Adam Lanza to carry out the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting. Her view is that his alleged Asperger's syndrome was not a contributing factor, but that untreated schizophrenia was a more likely cause of his actions.[10] In addition, she has contributed to Discover, where she has argued that the autism epidemic may, in fact, just be the result of diagnostic substitution and increased awareness of the condition.[11] She was called "one of the sharpest science writers in the blogosphere" by Steve Silberman.[12]

In 2016, Willingham, along with co-author Tara Haelle, published The Informed Parent: A Science-Based Resources for Your Child's First 4 Years, which examines the science around several parenting-related controversies and common parenting concerns.[13]

Research

Willingham has published 44 scientific papers, and, according to Google Scholar, her h-index is 22.[14] With regard to her research, Willingham has said that talking about it "has always carried a frisson of the risque." Her research has also led her to what she describes as cool things, including ultrasound and surgery on a spotted hyena and plastic casting of the inside of the mammalian penis.[3] Willingham's PhD research involved sex determination and the effects of pesticides and other environmental compounds on sex determination and development in the red-eared slider.[15] She also has published on the effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as atrazine.

Selected publications

Scientific papers
  • Sheehan, D. M.; Willingham, E.; Gaylor, D.; Bergeron, J. M.; Crews, D. (1999). "No threshold dose for estradiol-induced sex reversal of turtle embryos: How little is too much?". Environmental Health Perspectives. 107 (2): 155–159. doi:10.1289/ehp.99107155. PMC 1566346. PMID 9924012.
  • Willingham, E.; Baldwin, R.; Skipper, J. K.; Crews, D. (2000). "Aromatase Activity during Embryogenesis in the Brain and Adrenal–Kidney–Gonad of the Red-Eared Slider Turtle, a Species with Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination". General and Comparative Endocrinology. 119 (2): 202–207. doi:10.1006/gcen.2000.7505. PMID 10936040.
  • Wang, Z.; Liu, B. C.; Lin, G. T.; Lin, C. S.; Lue, T. F.; Willingham, E.; Baskin, L. S. (2007). "Up-Regulation of Estrogen Responsive Genes in Hypospadias: Microarray Analysis". The Journal of Urology. 177 (5): 1939–1946. doi:10.1016/j.juro.2007.01.014. PMID 17437852.

Books
  • Willingham, Emily (2010). The Complete Idiot's Guide to College Biology. Alpha Books.
  • Willingham, Emily; Myers, Jennifer Byde; Rosa, Shannon Des Roches; Greenburg, Carol (2011). Thinking Person's Guide To Autism. Deadwood City Publishing.
  • Willingham, Emily (2011). When Worlds Collide: The Troubled History of Bears and People in Texas. Amazon Digital Services.
  • Tara Haelle; Emily Willingham (2016). The informed parent : a science-based resource for your child's first four years. New York, NY: TarcherPerigee. ISBN 9780399171062.
  • Willingham, Emily (2020). Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis.[16]

References
  1. Willingham, Emily; Baskin, Laurence S. (2007). "Candidate genes and their response to environmental agents in the etiology of hypospadias". Nature Clinical Practice Urology. Nature Publishing Group. 4 (5): 270–279. doi:10.1038/ncpuro0783. PMID 17483812. S2CID 19932650.
  2. "Research Fellows Trained". University of California, San Francisco. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  3. "About". www.emilywillinghamphd.com. Retrieved 2018-11-24.
  4. 2014 John Maddox Prize, Sense About Science
  5. Emily. "Emily Willingham: About". Emilywillinghamphd.com. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  6. "CV". Nasw.org. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  7. "A life less ordinary?". Daisymayfattypants.blogspot.com. 2011-10-18. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  8. "Vaccines Not Linked To Autism. Again". Forbes. 2013-03-29. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  9. "Seralini Paper Influences Kenya Ban of GMO Imports". Forbes. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  10. Willingham, Emily (2012-12-17). "Asperger's and Newtown school shooting: Autistic does not mean violent". Slate.com. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  11. Willingham, Emily (11 July 2012). "Is Autism an "Epidemic" or Are We Just Noticing More People Who Have It?". Discover. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
  12. Silberman, Steve (2 April 2012). "Autism Awareness is Not Enough: Here's How to Change the World". Public Library of Science. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  13. Tara Haelle; Emily Willingham (2016). The informed parent : a science-based resource for your child's first four years. New York, NY: TarcherPerigee. ISBN 9780399171062.
  14. "Emily Willingham - Google Scholar Citations". Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  15. Emily Willingham Biography
  16. Willingham, Emily (2020). Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis. ISBN 978-0593087176.
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