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Rachel Carson, 1904-1964, was born and rasied in Springfield, PA. She attended the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College), and earned as Master's degree in Marine Biology from John Hopkins University. Carson taught zoology at the University of Maryland, and was eventually employed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, were she spent the majority of her career. Carson wrote a number of books about the sea. They include, Under the Sea Wind (1941), The Sea Around Us (1951), and The Edge of the Sea (1962). In 1962, Carson published her most famous work, Silent Spring, which had an enormous impact on public awareness about the pesticide industry.

Silent Spring created a controversy about industrial effects on the environment and Carson's credibility as a female scientist was attacked. The chemical industry attempted to have the book supressed and challenged its findings. They were not sucessful.

Her book caused so much controvery that President Kennedy set up a commission to study the effects of the pesticides that Carson had written about. The results of their studies showed that Carson's findings were accurate and DDT was banned in the United States in 1972. Since the ban of DDT and other toxins, the peregrine falcon and bald eagle have been removed from the endangered species list.

As a result of Carson's work, scientists and the public gained knowledge about the effects of chemical use in an industrial society on the health of humans and the environment. Her work inspired and continues to inspire environmentalists all over the world. She is credited as being the mother of the modern environmental movement.