Chief Metastasis Group and Former Director
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
National Institutes of Health
Research Triangle Park, NC, USA

Kenneth Olden, Ph.D., Sc.D., L.H.D., is the most recent past Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He held these positions from 1991 to 2005. In the history of the agency, Dr. Olden is the first African-American to become Director of one of the 18 institutes. He has since returned full time to his research position as Chief of the Metastasis Section, Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis at the NIEHS, which he also held while he was director. Dr. Olden is also presently the Yerby Visiting Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Olden received his Ph.D. degree in Cell Biology/Biochemistry from Temple University. He is the recipient of several honorary degrees namely, Sc.D. degrees from Metropolitan University, San Juan, Puerto Rico, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey; the University of Rochester, and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Tulane University. Dr. Olden also holds an honorary L.H.D., from the College of Charleston.

After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Olden has held several positions of distinction: Research Fellow and Instructor of Physiology at Harvard University (1970-1974); Senior Staff Fellow and then a Research Biologist at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Division of Cancer Biology and Diagnosis at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD (1974-1979); Associate Director for Research at the Howard University Cancer Center; Associate Professor of Oncology at Howard University Medical School in Washington, DC (1979-1982); Professor of Oncology and Deputy Director at Howard University Cancer Center (1982-1985); and Director, Professor and Chair of the Department of Oncology (1985-1991) at Howard University.

Dr. Olden has received numerous honors and awards; among them the Toxicology Forum's Distinguished Fellow Award, the Presidential Distinguished Executive Rank Award and the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award by former President Clinton for sustained extraordinary accomplishments. He's also received the HHS Secretary's Distinguished Service Award, the American College of Toxicology's First Distinguished Service Award, the National Minority Health Leadership Award and an Honorary Doctorate from Tulane University in 2006.

Dr. Olden was unique among Institute Directors in that he was awarded three of the most prestigious awards in Public Health: The Calver Award (2002), the Sedgwick Medal (2004), and the Julius B. Richmond Award (2005). He was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences in 1994 and appointed Member of the Visiting Committee, Board of Overseers, Harvard College in 2007. He is also on the editorial board of numerous journals, serving in most instances as Associate Editor. He has been cited in Current Contents, Life Sciences for having published two of the 100 most-cited papers in 1978-79, one of which was subsequently designated as a ";citation classic." Over 28 visiting fellows or post-docs have trained in his laboratory, and he has published over 125 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. In addition, Dr. Olden has published more than 45 review articles and book chapters and has participated in numerous national/international meetings as chair/co-chair and keynote speaker at more than 150 symposia seminars. Since resigning as Director of NIEHS/NTP in 2005, Dr. Olden has also been very active as an advisor to non-profit foundations.