Anne Pomeroy Autor

Autor was born in Prince George, British Columbia. Her father was with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Her mother was a school teacher and her family were pioneers in Vancouver.^[1] Autor attended Victoria High School. At the age of thirteen, she decided to become a scientist, later studying science at the University of Victoria. She moved to the University of British Columbia for undergraduate studies, where she majored in biochemistry.^[2] She eventually moved to Duke University for her doctorate, where she studied the molecular mechanisms that underpin the actions of streptomycin.^[3] Autor was a postdoctoral student at the University of Michigan. Her early research considered how oxygen can damage the lungs of premature babies.^[4][5] Autor was the only woman in her undergraduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral courses.^[2]

Autor started her academic career at the University of Iowa in 1972.^[1] She was the first woman lecturer in the Department of Pharmacology, and developed a faculty network to support women academics.^[6] In 1983, she left Iowa and returned to the University of British Columbia,^[7] where she worked alongside the hospital research groups and established a forensic pathology laboratory, and developed investigations into infant mortality.

Autor's research considered biochemistry and toxicology. She studied heavy metal toxicity in the environment, and developed an accredited programme on toxicology in the University of British Columbia.^[4][8] She acted as an advisor for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, where she aided the government on the management of toxic substances.^[2]

In 2000, Autor retired from the University of British Columbia.^[9] She served as an adjunct professor in the Al Ain University, and eventually made Professor and Vice Chair in Biomdeical Sciences at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi where she developed a medical education programme that included the humanities alongside technical scientific content.^{[citation needed]}