Eva King Killam

Eva King Killam (born 1920 or 1921; died July 30, 2006) who worked for NASA. Eva grew up in Eastchester, New York. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College

She spent a year in the Ph.D. program at Yale University, studying zoology, but returned home due to her father's illness. before doing doctoral work in pharmacology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. There she worked with and met her future husband, Keith Killam. She was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from the program.

Career In 1953, Until her retirement in 1991, Eva and her husband were frequent co-investigators.

In 1989 Eva King Killam became the second female president of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET), following Marjorie Horning (1984). Killam had previously served as the first female Councillor of the organization (1973-1976). Killam was the first woman editor-in-chief of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, serving from 1978 to 1991. After returning to the United States, they set up their own lab, and used their animal model of epilepsy to develop a screening test for anticonvulsants. They were able to examine which drugs worked and where they worked in the brain. They also assessed the behavioral toxicity of potential anti-epileptic drugs and the likelihood that they would affect learning. The baboon research also demonstrated the genetic basis underlying epileptic events, which were inherited in baboons following a strictly Mendelian pattern. Keith credits Eva with doing the majority of the work on baboons and learning. and HIV/AIDS research. They found that a virus similar to the one that causes HIV in humans replicated three times as often in morphine-dependent monkeys as compared to monkeys not exposed to morphine. Mutation rates of the virus were higher and the new mutations were AZT insensitive. The next woman to receive the award was Lee Limbird in 1987, 33 years later. The third was Susan Amara in 1993.

In 2002, Eva King Killam received the Paul Hoch Distinguished Service Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology has named the Eva King Killam Research Award after her. The award was first given in 2011.