Monday, Apr. 04, 2011
Margaret Hamburg
Age: 55
Occupation: Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Previous TIME 100 appearances: 0
This Harvard Medical School graduate gained national attention when she became the New York City health commissioner in 1991, at age 36. After stints in the Clinton Administration and the private sector, Margaret Hamburg assumed her Food and Drug Administration post at just the moment the agency was reeling from a spate of outbreaks of food-borne illnesses. Hamburg is charged with preventing that kind of thing from happening again and also with reforming the drug-approval process. In addition, she is heading the agency as it begins to exercise its new power to regulate tobacco.