MSU’s Chambers receives distinguished international recognition for leadership in toxicology
Contact: Wade Leonard
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State University’s Janice E. Chambers, a long-serving College of Veterinary Medicine faculty member, is this year’s recipient of one of the toxicology profession’s highest honors.
The international Society of Toxicology will honor Chambers next month with its Founders Award at the organization’s annual meeting. The honor is given to members for their exceptional leadership in advancing toxicological science and strengthening the role of toxicology in safety decision-making.
“We are thrilled to congratulate Dr. Chambers on this well-deserved honor,” said Michail Panagiotidis, MSU Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences head. “Her career and dedication are a testament to the world-class, world-changing science conducted every day in the College of Veterinary Medicine.”
A William L. Giles Distinguished Professor since 1995 and director of MSU’s Center for Environmental Health Sciences since 1991, Chambers serves in the Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences.
Chambers has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed publications and secured more than $30 million in competitive research funding, primarily from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense. Her work focuses on organophosphate toxicology, including pesticides and chemical threat agents, and has contributed to the development of promising new antidotes. This research has resulted in U.S. and European patents, and her research findings have contributed to regulatory decisions on pesticide usage.
“The chemistry for the pesticides we study is fundamentally the same as that for nerve agents; it’s just a matter of scale,” Chambers said. “The hope, of course, is that we would never need such antidotes, but in the event of a chemical attack or industrial accident, better treatments would save lives and save brain function.”
A California native, Chambers earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of San Francisco in 1969 and her Ph.D. in animal physiology from MSU in 1973. She and her late husband, fellow MSU toxicologist Howard Chambers, moved to Starkville in the early 1970s, where she completed her doctoral studies and began her MSU career.
She attributes much of her career’s success to collaborations with her husband, who passed away in 2016.
“Howard and I had a wonderful personal and professional relationship,” she said. “We had joint projects and grants for many years and were working together right up until the end. Some of our projects I’m continuing to work on.”
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