Mark Little Retires from the NCI
, by Jennifer K. Loukissas, M.P.P.
Mark Little, D.Phil.
Mark Little, D.Phil., senior investigator in the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB), will retire from the National Cancer Institute at the end of June. Dr. Little is an internationally recognized expert in radiation biostatistics. During his tenure in REB, he focused on the study of ionizing radiation and risk of cancer, cataracts, and cardiovascular disease, as well as solar ultraviolet radiation and risk of basal cell carcinoma, hemopoietic malignancies and brain tumors. The novel statistical models he developed elucidated mechanisms of carcinogenesis and related radiobiological endpoints for and approaches to estimate and account for measurement error. Dr. Little also served as the lead statistician in the UK-NCI study of cancer risk following pediatric CT exposure and assessed thyroid cancer risk in persons exposed in childhood to radioactive fallout following the Chornobyl accident.
Among his most important contributions were efforts to quantify the health risks at low and very low doses in populations exposed to environmental, occupational, and medical sources of radiation. This aspect of radiation epidemiology is of considerable public health importance as most of the world’s population experiences exposures in this range. Importantly, he developed methods to assess and address measurement error (in particular, shared errors) and explore the likelihood of dose thresholds.
Dr. Little’s distinguished service to the scientific community includes contributions to the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, United Kingdom (UK) Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE), UK Health Protection Agency’s Advisory Group on Ionising Radiation, International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Dr. Little studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and obtained his doctorate in mathematics at New College, Oxford, both in the United Kingdom.