Bruce Edwards Ivins was an American microbiologist, vaccinologist, senior biodefense researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), Fort Detrick, Maryland, and the person identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Ivins died on July 29, 2008, of an overdose of acetaminophen mixed with codeine in an apparent suicide after learning that criminal charges were likely to be filed against him by the FBI for an alleged criminal connection to the attacks.