Those who know Dr. Tara O'Toole were not surprised when President Barack Obama announced Wednesday he will nominate the founding director and chief executive officer of the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center as undersecretary for science and technology in the Homeland Security Department.

"I think it's a great day for the country. She is extraordinarily suited for the position," said Dr. Thomas V. Inglesby, deputy director and chief operating officer of UPMC's biosecurity center headquartered in Baltimore. "She is unusually smart and articulate, she has a spine of steel, she has extraordinary management abilities, she can see around corners to anticipate problems and she is very action- and change-oriented.

Jeffrey A. Romoff, UPMC president and chief executive officer, said Dr. O'Toole has been instrumental in making UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh an international leader in the critical field of biosecurity and public health preparedness.

"Tara's expertise makes her uniquely qualified to step into this important role at a time when the dual threats of bioterrorism and pandemic disease are at the forefront, as we have seen in this past two weeks with H1N1," he said. "There are few people who can match her intelligence, leadership skills and her understanding of how government works."

Dr. O'Toole, who also is a professor of medicine and of public health at Pitt, cannot speak to the media pending her confirmation to the post by the U.S. Senate. Her confirmation hearings are expected to be held within the next few weeks.

She has headed the biosecurity center since it was created in 2003. While its 30-person staff -- experienced in government, medicine, public health, bioscience and the social sciences -- is headquartered in Baltimore, all of its hospitals and labs are in the UPMC system. The independent, nonprofit organization works to affect policy and practice in ways that lessen the illness, death and civil disruption that would follow large-scale epidemics, whether they occur naturally or result from use of a biological weapon.

Prior to leading the UPMC center, Dr. O'Toole was a founding member of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies, serving as its director from 2001-2003. She is co-editor-in-chief of the journal "Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice and Science" and was a principal author and producer of "Dark Winter," an influential exercise conducted in 2001 to alert national leaders to the dangers of bioterrorist attacks.

From 1993 to 1997, Dr. O'Toole was assistant secretary of energy for environment safety and health, serving as principal adviser to the energy secretary on matters pertaining to protecting the environment and worker and public health from some Energy Department operations' perils.

During her tenure, Dr. O'Toole conducted four major "Vulnerability Studies" that identified major safety and environmental hazards at the nation's nuclear weapons complex and focused resources on the most serious threats. Dr. O'Toole also established the department's first nuclear safety rules and professional enforcement office and led a task force that oversaw federal investigations into human radiation experiments conducted during the Cold War.

A board-certified internist and occupational medicine physician, she received her bachelor's degree from Vassar College, her medical degree from the George Washington University and a master's of public health degree from Johns Hopkins University. She completed a residency in internal medicine at Yale University, followed by a fellowship in occupational and environmental medicine at Johns Hopkins University.