Submitted by George P. Daston
Edward W. Carney, a Past President of the Teratology Society and of the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section of Society of Toxicology (SOT), passed away suddenly on January 12, 2015. He was 55 years old. Ed was a long-time employee of Dow Chemical; at the time of his death, he was Scientific Director of Dow’s Toxicology and Environmental Research and Consulting function.
Ed was born on June 14, 1959, on Staten Island, New York, where he grew up. Ed’s youth was highlighted by a love of the outdoors, animals, and music. Ed’s education reflected his interest in animals; he earned a BS in Animal Science at Cornell in 1981, and then working as a veterinary assistant in a clinical practice, followed by a brief stint as a reproductive toxicology/teratology study director at Sterling Drug in Rensselaer, New York, Ed returned to school. He earned an MS at the University of Wisconsin (with Barry Bavister), a PhD at Cornell (with Robert Foote), and a postdoc at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto (with Stephen Lye and Janet Rossant). His graduate and post-graduate research was in developmental biology, where he developed new methods for pre-implantation embryo culture in rodents and rabbits, and investigated the genetic control of placental development in mice and humans.
Ed joined Dow in 1992, in Midland, Michigan, where he spent his entire career, rising from an entry-level toxicology position to become the highest ranking toxicologist in the organization. Even though Ed had worked as a study director in toxicology in the pharma industry for a brief period before graduate school, he had considerable trepidation about working in toxicology when almost all of his previous research experience and knowledge base was in very basic developmental biology. He needn’t have worried, as it became quickly apparent to him (and to Dow) that his embryology and animal science skills would prove invaluable in addressing mechanistic questions in developmental toxicology.
One of Ed’s first projects was to understand the basis for the developmental toxicity of high doses of ethylene glycol in rodents and rabbits. Ed and colleagues were able to identify the metabolite that was responsible for the developmental effects, and that there were both maternal and direct effects on the embryo that produced the toxicity. The body of research that Ed and his colleagues did on the toxicity, metabolism, and pharmacokinetics of ethylene glycol were crucial in dimensioning the risk of real-world exposures to this societally important chemical. Ed was able to apply and expand on his previous research in embryo culture, including successful culture of post-implantation rabbit embryos, a technique he pioneered.
Ed’s research accomplishments included mechanistic studies to explain the toxicity of other important chemicals, as well as the development of improved methods that allowed for improved prediction of developmental toxicity and endocrine activity. More recently, he became heavily involved with novel approaches for rapidly predicting toxicity and founded the Dow Predictive Safety Assessment Center. He, along with others, had become convinced that it was possible to provide not only faster, but better answers about potential human safety issues by applying modern biotechnology, computation, and systems biology thinking to the toxicity assessment for new chemicals. Ed’s CV lists approximately 100 peer-reviewed papers, reviews, and book chapters.
Ed was a consummate collaborator and team builder. He was artful in finding people, both inside and outside Dow, who could complement his own skills and produce results that far surpassed what any of the team could have done on his/ her own. He was always gracious in giving credit to others. Although Ed was not in a traditional educational role, he was a patient and caring teacher, and unofficially mentored many junior colleagues. He was generous in sharing his knowledge and was sought after as a lecturer. Ed had an adjunct position in the toxicology program at the University of Michigan and was a lecturer in toxicology at the University of Surrey in the UK. Ed was himself a lifelong learner and over the past year had the opportunity to pursue two short sabbaticals, one at the JRC in Ispra, Italy, the other at EPA’s National Center for Computational Toxicology, visits that allowed him to share his vision for predictive toxicology while learning new methods and making new contacts.
Ed had a long record of service to the science of toxicology. In addition to his service as president of the Teratology Society and the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section of SOT, he was on EPA’s Science Advisory Board and its Board of Scientific Counselors, the Board of the Toxicology Forum, the NTP Board of Scientific Counselors, the ECVAM Science Advisory Board, the Board of Directors of the Hamner Institute, and the Human Toxicology Project Consortium. He was on the Editorial Boards of Toxicological Sciences and Reproductive Toxicology, and was an active reviewer for many more.
Music was also a significant part of Ed’s life. He was an accomplished saxophonist who played professionally in central and northern Michigan, and occasionally in exotic locations like Palm Beach or Philadelphia, when his band was the entertainment for the Teratology Society banquet. He shared his love of music through his volunteer work on the Board of Directors of the Grove Music Festival. He passionately supported musical education through volunteer work with the Dow and Meridian High School jazz bands, ACT-SO, and as founder of Michigan Jazz Trail Jam sessions for local high school students. He took special delight in his children’s musicianship, proudly telling friends, “They all can outplay me now.”
As important as Ed’s scientific career was to him, he would have put it in second place on his list of priorities. His family indisputably came first. Ed met his wife Nancy (nee Hertlein) when they were both undergraduates at Cornell. They were married 30 years at the time of his death. Ed is also survived by his three sons, Alex, Kevin, and Philip. Ed was a caring, involved father and loving husband. As his children grew old enough to leave the nest, Ed and Nancy started to take increasingly adventurous trips with their children, and brought back amazing stories about receiving an egg or a pencil as change in Zimbabwe (where hard currency was scarce) or sweating through a hot, mosquito-filled night at a hostel in St. Petersburg, Russia, or attempting to make dinner reservations in Italy, only to find that the restaurant’s proprietor believed that he was asking to bring five dogs to dinner (“Signor Carney” being indistinguishable in his American accent from “cinque cani”) . Ed had a great sense of humor, and delighted in these experiences, and their retelling. He will be missed.