Mary Olson
Gender & Radiation Impact Project
GRIP Founder, Executive Director
Ionized Radiation Exposed Civilian, Activist
Through her work as a staff biologist and policy analyst at Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Mary has spent decades working for greater health and greater protection for people in communities impacted by nuclear activities. She has studied radiation health consequences with some of the leading radiation researchers of the 20th Century.
- In 2014, she presented at the Vienna Conference on Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons and in 2015, she spoke during the United Nations review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
- In 2016, she was a featured speaker on the medical consequences of nuclear weapons at an event sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Russia and presented as a featured panelist at the Gender Summit 9 in Brussels.
- In 2017, Mary returned to the U..N. where her presentation on gender issues impacted the preamble to the treaty being written to include the findings.
- In 2018 she spoke at the Gender Summit 15 in London and participated in two events in Scotland – the first with the Union of Radio Ecologists and the second at the Low-Dose Radiation
Mary’s background in biology, biochemistry, her work as a staff biologist and policy analyst at Nuclear Information and Resource Service, and her own experience with radioactive contamination as a young woman have put her in a unique position to speak publicly on radiation policy from a health, safety, and humanitarian perspective.
Mary hopes to inspire cancer prevention strategies worldwide that will contribute to more successful reproduction and viability of future generations.
The mission of the Gender and Radiation Impact Project (GRIP) is to:
- Promote a better understanding of how harm from ionizing radiation is related to gender and age at the time of exposure,
- Encourage research that clarifies these relationships, and
- Advocate for safety standards and regulations solidly based on this research.