Margaret Hamburg

Margaret Ann "Peggy" Hamburg (born July 12, 1955, Chicago, Illinois) is an American physician and public health administrator, who is serving as the chair of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and co-chair of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP).

Hamburg graduated from Harvard College in 1977 and earned her M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1983.

She completed her medical residency training at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine.

Hamburg is married to Peter Fitzhugh Brown, a computer scientist and artificial intelligence expert.

Her father is President Emeritus of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and also served as the president of the AAAS in 1984.

She also worked as a clinical instructor for Georgetown University School of Medicine from 1986 to 1990.

From May 1989 to May 1990, she worked as Assistant Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health under Anthony Fauci.

In this position, she participated in HIV/AIDS policy development and research.

In 1991 Hamburg was appointed Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she served for six years, working first for Mayor David Dinkins and then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

During her tenure, she worked on improved services for women and children, a needle-exchange program to reduce HIV transmission, a program to curtail the resurgence and spread of tuberculosis, and the nation's first public health bioterrorism preparedness program.

The couple were married on May 23, 1992.

Brown is the chief executive officer of Renaissance Technologies.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed Hamburg as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

She served in this policy role until 2001 when she became the founding Vice President for Biological Programs and later the Senior Scientist for the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a foundation created by Ted Turner dedicated to reducing the threat to public safety from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

In that role, Hamburg spearheaded efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to both naturally occurring and deliberately caused biological threats.

She worked on reforms to reduce the dangers associated with modern bioterrorism and infectious diseases such as pandemic influenza.

In June 2001, Hamburg participated in the Operation Dark Winter exercise at Andrews Air Force Base simulating a bioterrorism event involving weaponized smallpox.

Hamburg is a member of the Medical Advisory Team for the Sidwell Friends School, where she also served on the board of trustees from 2004 to 2009.

On July 13, 2005, she was announced as an advisor to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

She served as the 21st Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from May 2009 to April 2015.

Hamburg is the daughter of Beatrix Hamburg and David A. Hamburg, both physicians.

Her mother was the first self-identified African-American woman to be accepted at Vassar College and to earn a degree from the Yale University School of Medicine.

Hamburg was nominated by President Barack Obama in March 2009 to become Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and was unanimously confirmed in May 2009.

As FDA Commissioner she was known for advancing regulatory science, streamlining and modernizing FDA's regulatory pathways, and globalization of the agency, as well as the implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (2009), the Food Safety Modernization Act (2011), and a review of the system for the evaluation and approval of medical devices.

Hamburg was the longest-serving FDA commissioner since David A. Kessler, as well as the second woman to hold the position.

Hamburg was ranked on the list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women three times—ranking 21st in 2011, 61st in 2012, and 59th in 2013.

Following her medical training, Hamburg moved to Washington, D.C., to begin her career in public service.

She served in several roles, beginning with a position in the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The FDA, under Hamburg's leadership approved 51 drugs in 2014 alone, which was noted as being "most in more than 20 years" to which Hamburg attributes to "innovative approaches".

She served at the FDA until her resignation on March 28, 2015.

During Hamburg's tenure at the FDA, the agency was criticized for speeding approvals at the expense of safety, while some industry voices indicated the pace was "justified".

In April 2015 Hamburg was appointed Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Medicine.

Renaissance Technologies employees were collectively the top donors to President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and collectively the third largest donors to Hillary Clinton, giving $15.5 million and $16.5 million respectively.

The couple has two children together.

In December 2016, Hamburg was named president-elect for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

She served a three-year term as an officer and member of the Executive Committee of the AAAS Board of Directors beginning in February 2017.

In 2018, she participated in the Clade X pandemic exercise that modelled a fictional parainfluenza bioterrorism attack designed to reduce the global population.

She played the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The event was held by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Hamburg joined the board of directors for Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in 2018.