Kaye, Sidney

AMERICAN
TOXICOLOGIST

With a career that began in the 1930s, Sidney Kaye has worked both as a toxicologist and an educator. He is the founder of four major forensic laboratories, and a co-founder of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences . Kaye also has worked as a professor of pharmacology, pathology, toxicology , and forensic medicine at four major universities. In addition, he has written more than 120 articles for professional publications , and is the author of several books, including the popular Handbook of Emergency Toxicology.

Kaye grew up in New York City, and attended New York University, earning a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1935 and a master's degree in toxicology in 1939. He then began his thirty-year involvement with the United States military, first, in 1941, as a toxicologist in the Army, and later as a toxicology consultant for the Army, Air Force, and Navy. Kaye also went back to school, earning a doctorate in pharmacology from the Medical College of Virginia in 1956.

While working as a toxicologist, Kaye was responsible for the founding and management of four major forensic laboratories. The first, in 1942, was the toxicology section of the Medical Laboratory of the U.S. Army, Antilles department. Later, in 1945, Kaye founded the St. Louis Police Laboratory, and in 1947, the toxicology laboratories of the Chief Medical Examiner's Office of Virginia. In 1962, he founded the toxicology laboratories of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Puerto Rico. In addition, Kaye was on the steering committee that was responsible for creating the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, one of the largest forensic science organizations in the world.

Kaye's involvement in forensic science extends beyond his contributions as a toxicologist. He has also worked for more than forty years as an educator, instructing hundreds of students in the theory and practice of analytical and forensic toxicology. His academic career led him to faculty posts at Washington University School of Medicine, the Medical College of Virginia, the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and the University of Puerto Rico Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Kaye is also the author of numerous articles for scientific publications, and is perhaps best known as the author of the Handbook of Emergency Toxicology, a widely used guide that instructs on the identification, diagnosis, and treatment of poisoning. The book's fifth edition was printed in 1988.

see also Careers in forensic science; Toxicological analysis.