Researcher uncovered anthrax secret
Deadly outbreak caused by Soviet leak, not meat
In 1979 an anthrax outbreak killed 64 people in the small Ural Mountains town of Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union, and for years, the government blamed contaminated meat. U.S. intelligence officials doubted the account, but only in the early 1990s were their suspicions confirmed through sleuthing led by a husband-and-wife team of American researchers, Matthew Meselson and Jeanne Guillemin.
Guillemin, who has died at 76, spearheaded the fieldwork revealing that the anthrax outbreak was the result of an accident at a laboratory known as Compound 19, where the Soviet military conducted research on biological weapons in violation of an international treaty.
After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Guillemin made the first of three trips to Russia, going door to door with interpreters to interview the families of the victims and compiling a map showing the victims’ likely whereabouts when the leak sent anthrax spores into the northerly wind. It was one of the deadliest accidents in the history of biological weapons.
“There was one day, and only one day, when the wind was blowing in that direction all day long,” Meselson said in an interview. “Meat does not travel in a direct line with the wind.”
Guillemin became a sought-after analyst of biological warfare, blending anthropology, sociology and security studies into a distinctive expertise. She died Nov. 15 at home in Cambridge, Mass., according to her husband, who said the cause was cancer.
Trained in psychology, anthropology and sociology, Guillemin turned her attention to biological weapons in the 1980s after marrying Meselson.
Guillemin was author of numerous books on biological warfare around the world.
Born Jean Elizabeth Garrigan in Brooklyn, N.Y., on March 6, 1943, Guillemin received a PHD in sociology and anthropology from Brandeis University in 1973.
She was divorced from her first husband, Robert Guillemin, and pursued her career while raising their twin boys. In 1986, she married Meselson. In addition to her husband, survivors include five grandchildren.