Brookhaven Town Honors Three Women from Brookhaven Lab

March 24, 2004

Upton, NY - Three employees from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory - Helene Benveniste, Mary Daum and Marge Lynch - were among seventeen women honored for their accomplishments at the Town-sponsored Women's Recognition Night on March 23. The Town held the ceremony to celebrate National Women's History Month.

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Awards winners (L to R) Mary Daum,Helene Benveniste and Marge Lynch (click image to download 300 dpi hi-res version)

Recognized by the Town for her contributions to medicine, Helene Benveniste, Interim Associate Laboratory Director for Life Sciences and Interim Chair of the Medical Department at Brookhaven Lab, has a commitment to the practice of medicine and to investigating medical problems of major societal impact. Early in her career, she pioneered new methods for investigating the brain and made important discoveries in how stroke damages the brain.

Currently, Benveniste works in a new research field known as magnetic resonance microscopy - an advanced form of magnetic resonance imaging, which allows the visualization of the brain in very fine detail. She has set up a small animal magnetic resonance system at Brookhaven Lab to look at models of human disease and the role of genetics in disease. Benveniste also recently started investigating how drugs of abuse and therapeutic drugs like antidepressants are transferred from a mother to an unborn child.

In addition to working at Brookhaven, Benveniste also is a practicing anesthesiologist at University Hospital at Stony Brook, and she is a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Stony Brook University. She earned her M.D. and Ph.D. in neuropathology and neurobiology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1986 and 1991, respectively. In 1989, she left Denmark and joined Duke University where she did an internship in family medicine and a residency in anesthesiology. She joined Brookhaven's Medical Department as a scientist in 2001, and was promoted to her current positions in 2003.

Benenviste commented. "I'd like to thank Brookhaven Town for recognizing my contributions in medicine. Also, I'd like to thank all my colleagues who have helped to make my research possible."

Mary Daum, Manager of Brookhaven Lab's Environmental Information Management System (EIMS), was honored in the category of technology. Over the last decade, she has built and overseen an integrated database and geographic informational system (GIS) on environmental data at the Laboratory. The EIMS that she developed is based on over two million sample analytical records, more than 300 maps, and over 25 data access and data management applications.

Daum's system includes such services as data processing, verification, storage, reporting and visual presentations that convey complex environmental data in terms that the general public can understand. In addition, as a current member and former chair of the Long Island GIS User Group Steering Committee, Daum has worked to further the use and availability of the GIS throughout Long Island.

"I am pleased that the EIM S is a system from which people can get timely information," Daum said. "I'm also proud to be acknowledged for my work by Brookhaven Town."

Daum earned an M.S. in education from Miami University, Ohio, in 1966, an M.A. in geography from Michigan State University in 1969, and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Wisconsin in 1977. She began her career at Brookhaven Lab in 1982 as a technical collaborator in the Department of Applied Science. In 1993, she started working on EIMS in the Office of Environmental Restoration and she became EIMS manager in the Environmental Services Division in 2000.

Marge Lynch, who was recognized by the Town for her contributions to government, became Brookhaven Lab's Assistant Laboratory Director for Community, Education, Government, and Public Affairs in 1997 during one of the most tumultuous times in the Laboratory's history. She is responsible for the Laboratory's internal and external communications, community involvement, government relations, and science education programs. Faced with environmental, political and community relations problems, Lynch successfully directed programs to help rebuild Brookhaven Lab's relationships with neighbors, community groups, and elected officials.

Lynch's continued commitment to involving the community in decision-making processes has led to numerous awards, including the "Organization of the Year" award from the International Association of Public Participation. The community involvement and communications programs instituted by Lynch are widely viewed as models for industry and government agencies. In 2003, an external group of experts in the fields of internal and external communications and public participation gave Lynch's organization its highest rating for communications, education and community involvement programs.

Lynch commented, "I am extremely pleased to be granted the distinction of Woman of the Year by the Brookhaven Town Office of Women's Services. My special thanks go to a very talented, creative, smart and effective Community Involvement, Education, Government & Public Affairs staff and the more than 500 Lab volunteers who share in this award."

An accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America, Marge Lynch earned a B.A. in English literature from Saint Peter's College and an MBA in finance from New York University. She started her career as an aide to former Suffolk County Executive John Klein in 1974, and, four years later, she spearheaded the creation of a public relations staff at Northville Industries, Melville, Long Island. In 1985, she moved to Boston to become Manager of Government and Public Affairs at Browning-Ferris Industries, and, in 1988, she returned to Northville as Director of Government & Public Affairs. In 1993, Lynch became Vice President of the Marcus Group, a Manhattan-based government and public relations consulting firm, and, in 1996, she moved to Exton, Pennsylvania, to become Program Director of Public Affairs & Community Relations for Environmental Resources Management, Inc., a global environmental consulting firm, a position she held until she joined Brookhaven Lab.

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