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Dr. Needleman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A graduate of Overbrook High School, he has a BA Muhlenberg College and a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He interned at Philadelphia General Hospital. Following military service as a captain in the United States Army, he trained in pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was chief resident in pediatrics. He also was a research fellow in cardiology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He entered private practice in pediatrics and later trained in Psychiatry at the Temple University Health Sciences Center, where he was assistant professor of psychiatry.
Before joining the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as professor of child psychiatry and pediatrics, he was an attending physician at the Children's Hospital of Boston and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Long interested in the health effects of lead at silent doses, Dr. Needleman developed a new way of measuring a child's body burden of lead – the analysis of teeth. This method, adopted for use worldwide, showed that children with high lead in their teeth – but no other signs of lead poisoning – had lower 1Q scores, poorer attention spans and poorer language skills. Similar effects have been published in many studies around the world
Dr. Needleman mounted the first large–scale study of intelligence and behavior in children who had no symptoms of lead toxicity. He followed his subjects into adulthood, demonstrating that lead exposure is associated with an increased risk for reading disabilities and failure to graduate from high school. These studies have been consulted in the development of government regulation sand programs, such as the P.H.S. Strategic Plan to Eliminate Childhood Lead Poisoning, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for recognition and treatment of the disease.
Dr. Needleman was the first investigator to study the effects of lead during pregnancy and later on infant development. Other investigators in the United States and Australia have also subsequently reported similar studies. A 1979 lead poisoning study by Dr. Needleman led to the government's decision to remove lead from gasoline.
He has been honored for his research, including: The First Scientific Studies Award of the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities; the Sarah Poiley Medal of the New York Academy of Sciences; the Charles Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement in Public Health; the National Wildlife Federation Conservation Science Award; the University Of Pittsburgh Chancellor's Award for Public Service; the H. John Heinz Foundation Environmental Award; the Physician's Forum Edward K. Barsky Award; the Society for Occupational and Environmental Health Vernon Houk Award; Muhlenberg College's Shankweiler Award; the University of Pennsylvania's Distinguished Graduate Award; and the Prince Mahidol Award of Thailand. He has been elected to Who's Who in America, the Institute of Medicine of The National Academy of Sciences, the Collegium Ramazzini and Sigma Xi.
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