Mr. Bernard Shleien

Dr. Shleien authored or co-authored more than fifty articles and reports on environmental fallout, radiation doses from medical radiation to the US population, emergency responses to radiation accidents, biological effects of iodine-131, and radiation dose reconstruction studies around nuclear facilities. He received the Public Health Services Outstanding Service medal for his work on protective actions and the use of potassium iodide in radiation accidents, which played a significant role in the emergency response to the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident. He retired from the US Public Health Service in 1983 with the rank of Captain. On moving to Israel with his wife Debbie, he was the Chief of the Environmental and Radioisotope Branch of Israel's Ministry of Health (1984-1986). Dr. Shleien was a Certified Health Physicist and a Fellow of the American Public Health and Health Physics Society

He married Deborah H. Michelson in 1960, and they were married for 55 years.

From 1987 to 1995 Dr. Shleien was the founder and president of Scinta, Inc. a radiation protection-consulting firm. During this time, he was the primary editor of the "Handbook of Health Physics and Radiological Health" which he initially published through Scinta. He participated in the Hanford Nuclear Site Cleanup, which retrospectively investigated radiation releases from facilities used to build atomic weapons. He has belonged to and served in various capacities in the Tifereth Israel Congregation, Washington D.C. since 1970. ·

Dr. Shleien did his undergraduate and graduate educations at the University of Southern California and the Harvard School of Public Health, where he received a Doctor of Pharmacy (PhD) and Master’s degree in Radiological Health respectively.

He entered the commissioned corps or the US Public Health Service in 1957 and served initially at the US Public Health Service Marine Hospital, Seattle, WA and then as a manufacturing and analytical control chemist at the USPHS Medical Supply Depot, Piney Point, MD.. In 1959 he was transferred to the Bureau of Radiological Health, later the FDA's Center for Radiological Health and Devices. The bulk of his life work was spent in Silver Spring, MD while working at FDA’s Rockville, MD location He was also Chief of Environmental Radiation Studies at the USPHS Northeastern Radiological Health Laboratory in Winchester, MA. and later served as the Department of Health and Human Services project officer for the Federal Radiation Council and the first Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation committee of the National Academy of Science.

Returning to his adolescent interest in art he studied at the Maryland College of Art and Design in Silver Spring, MD. Judaic themes and scientific advances inspired his expressionistic woodcuts and monotypes. He was a member of the Foundry Gallery, Washington DC (2000-2004) and his work is in public and private collections.

Bernard Shleien was born on the lower east side of Manhattan in 1934 to Isaac and Tilley Shleien, recent Jewish immigrants from Poland. His mother died early in his life and he was raised by his stepmother, Lucy Shleien.

He is survived by his daughter, Sara (Eric) Waskowicz, and son, Joshua Shleien, and grandchildren, Sam, George, and Lucy Waskowicz. His wife, Debra Shleien, preceded his death, in 2015.