Meet the "Ask the Experts" Editors

Gen Roessler is a University of Florida associate professor emeritus and now resides in Minnesota, where she is editor in chief of the Health Physics Society's newsletter—Health Physics News—and Web site. She is also editor-in-chief of the Society for Risk Analysis RISK newsletter. She serves on scientific advisory committees for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institutes of Occupational Health and Safety. She is an honorary member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements and recently was appointed to a Presidential Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health. She holds a BA in mathematics from Jacksonville University and an MS in radiation biophysics and a PhD in radiological engineering from the University of Florida. Her specialities are radiation dosimetry, radiation biology, and communications. At the University of Florida she was head of Health Physics and Medical Physics in the Department of Nuclear Engineering. Gen is a past president of the Health Physics Society and a former editor in chief of Health Physics.

Kamran Vaziri received his PhD in nuclear physics from Utah State University in 1987, doing his doctoral thesis work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He then worked on nuclear physics experiments at the University of Colorado Nuclear Physics Laboratory and later joined Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, working on experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Jefferson Lab, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bates Linear Accelerator Center. Kamran joined Fermilab's Radiation Physics group in 1992. He has been working on radiation physics problems and reviews of different accelerators and experiments. As a radiation physicist his responsibilities include radiation physics modeling and calculation in support of experiments and accelerators designs, site radiation measurements and instrumentation, environmental measurements, regulatory issues, Fermilab radiation safety interlocks coordinator, and national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) coordinator. He is the radiation safety coordinator for the future NOvA experiment at Fermilab. Kamran has coauthored more than 100 scientific and technical papers regarding radiation physics and nuclear physics. He is an occasional book and article reviewer for  Health Physics. He has taught a radiation physics course at the U.S. Particle Accelerator School and has taught radiation monitoring and environmental monitoring courses at the Health Physics Society (HPS) Professional Development School. He is the past president of the HPS Accelerator Section.

Ronald L. Kathren is professor emeritus at Washington State University at Tri-Cities and president of The Kathren Group, Inc., an environmental health physics and safety consulting firm. He holds degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Pittsburgh and is certified by both the American Board of Health Physics and the American Academy of Environmental Engineers. In a career that spans nearly 50 years, he has received numerous honors and awards, including the Elda E. Anderson Award and the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award of the Health Physics Society. His more than 175 papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature as well as several textbooks including Radioactivity in the Environment and Radiation Protection attest to his broad background in the radiological sciences. His primary interests are environmental radioactivity; history of the radiological sciences; biokinetics and health effects of uranium, plutonium, and the transuranium elements; and radiation dosimetry.

Michael Stabin received a PhD in nuclear engineering (health physics emphasis) from the University of Tennessee in 1996 and a master of engineering and bachelor's degree from the University of Florida in 1983 and 1981. He worked for 15 years (1983 to 1998) at the Radiation Internal Dose Information Center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, held a visiting professor position from 1998 to 2000 in Recife, Brazil, and currently works as an associate professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He serves on the editorial staffs of the Health Physics Journal, the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, and the Journal of Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals. He is the author of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry: An Introduction to Health Physics and numerous research articles and textbook chapters regarding radiation dose models and calculations, particularly in the area of nuclear medicine.

Orhan Suleiman is involved in a variety of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initiatives involving human research with radiolabeled drugs, imaging in drug development, and drug safety issues. His current tenure in FDA's drug center complements his earlier experience in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, where he was responsible for the Nationwide Evaluation of X-ray Trends (NEXT) survey program and was actively involved in the Mammography Quality Standards Act of 1992. He served as the executive secretary of FDA's Technical Electronic Products Radiation Safety Standards Committee, responsible for consumer products such as sunlamps, cellular telephones, personnel security systems, and medical products such as fluoroscopy and computed tomography (CT). He currently serves as the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements subcommittee chair (consumer products) for the upcoming report on Radiation Exposure to the U.S. Population and also represents the FDA on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's advisory committee on the medical use of isotopes. Orhan received his BS (1970) and MS (1972) from the University of Florida and his PhD (1989) from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. He has served on a variety of national and international organizations and numerous committees and has published and lectured extensively. 

Eric Abelquist received BS and MS degrees in radiological health physics and radiological sciences and protection from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is currently the director of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education's Radiological Safety, Assessments, and Training (RSAT) program and is responsible for the management of all RSAT activities, including the Professional Training Programs (PTP) and the Environmental Survey and Site Assessment Program (ESSAP). Since 1994 Abelquist has contributed to the preparation of the Multiagency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual (MARSSIM), NUREG-1507, and draft NUREG-1761 and has presented more than 70 MARSSIM training courses. He continues to provide technical assistance in various aspects of decommissioning surveys and has recently published a textbook titled Decommissioning Health Physics: A Handbook for MARSSIM Users (July 2001). He has been active in the start-up and continuing operations of the Decommissioning Section of the Health Physics Society. He was certified by the American Board of Health Physics in 1996, is presently chair for HPS/ANSI N13.59 Characterization of Land Areas and Structures in Support of Decommissioning and is on the HPS Board of Directors.

Linnea Wahl is a native of Minnesota and an alumnus of the University of Minnesota (bachelor's in liberal arts, 1976; master's in technical communication, 1986). In 1989, Linnea moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico. While working as a technical editor at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Linnea became interested in health physics and completed a master of science in the field. She obtained certification in 1996, working in Los Alamos as an environmental health physicist on air quality and environmental remediation projects. In 1999, Linnea took a position as an operational health physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, California. Moving on to a position with LBNL's environmental group, Linnea is now program leader for environmental radiation protection, where she is responsible for stack monitoring, vegetation sampling, and environmental dosimetry programs. Linnea is a Fellow of the Health Physics Society (HPS), president-elect of the HPS Accelerator Section, and past secretary of the Northern California Chapter of the HPS.

Keith Dinger received an undergraduate degree in physics and a commission as an officer in the U.S. Navy from Miami University in 1967, after which he served four years in the nuclear-submarine service. After resigning his commission he joined the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, as the manager of the Radiological Instrumentation Program. Three years later he was appointed as the director of radiation health, directing the occupational and environmental health physics program at the shipyard for the next 18 years. While in this position, he earned his MS in radiological health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Keith took an early retirement from the shipyard in 1993. Since leaving the shipyard, he has been consulting, including an appointment as an instructor of environmental sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health from 1994 to 2004. He is a Health Physics Society Fellow, past president, past treasurer, and past director and a recipient of the Founders Award. Keith currently serves as the Health Physics Society Government Relations Liaison.

Ray Johnson directed the Radiation Safety Academy from 1985 to 2007 until merging with Dade Moeller & Associates, where he now serves as vice president for training. From 1970 to 1985 he served as a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Public Health Service on a permanent assignment to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he served as chief of the Radiation Surveillance Branch. From 1988 to 2006 he managed a contract for radiation safety services at the National Institutes of Health. He has been a member of the Health Physics Society (HPS) since 1966 and served on the Executive Committee for nine years as secretary, treasurer, and president. He has also served local chapters for over 40 years—in particular the Baltimore-Washington Chapter, where he edited its newsletter for 25 years, served as president in 1990, and is now an honorary life member. He has chaired and served on many HPS committees, including chair of the History Committee since 2004. He is currently treasurer of the American Academy of Health Physics. He is a Fellow of the HPS and certified by the American Board of Health Physics since 1983. He has graduate degrees from M.I.T. and Harvard and spent six years on doctoral studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has over 30 professional society awards and has authored over 500 book chapters, articles, professional papers, training manuals, technical reports, and presentations on radiation safety and radiation risk communication. 

John Hageman is a certified health physicist, radiation safety officer, and principal scientist at Southwest Research Institute^® (SwRI^®). He has a BS in physics from the University of Texas (UT) at Arlington and an MS in radiological sciences - medical health physics from the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. At SwRI he is responsible for the use of a large variety of radionuclides under a broad radioactive material license issued for research and development. He is also responsible for the safe operation of a large variety of radiation-producing machines used for laboratory analysis and the High-Level Radiation Effects Facility, which is licensed for sealed sources of ⁶⁰Co and ¹³⁷Cs. He holds a patent on a charged-particle powered battery and has consulted in the design analyses for hot cells and accelerator shielding. He was a manager with the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses at SwRI for several projects for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's high-level radioactive waste program. He also worked with Westinghouse Electric Corporation as a nuclear plant engineer, where he supervised plant operations and the training of Naval officers at the Idaho Naval Reactors Facilities. He is an associate editor of Operational Radiation Safety (1999-present), was a member of the HPS Board of Directors (2003-2005), and became a Fellow of the HPS in 2004.

George Chabot is currently professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he previously served as professor of radiological sciences in the Physics Department and, for many years, as radiation safety officer for the university. He serves as a consultant in radiation science and radiation protection to public utilities, industry, medical facilities, government agencies, and others. His earlier work experience includes employment as an analytical organic chemist in private industry and six years of work as a radiochemist and in the training group of the Radiological Health Branch of the U.S. Public Health Service (now the Food and Drug Administration). He has been active in the Health Physics Society, the American Academy of Health Physics, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, and other scientific organizations. His formal education includes a BA degree in chemistry from Harvard University, an MS in industrial hygiene/radiological health from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a PhD in analytical chemistry from the University of Lowell. He is the author of numerous publications that include refereed journal articles, book chapters, reports, and manuals dealing with various aspects of radiation science and protection, especially in areas of radiation dosimetry and radiation measurement.

Kennith "Duke" Lovins is a medical health physicist and is certified by the American Board of Health Physics. He has an MS degree in health physics from the University of Cincinnati and a BHS degree in radiological health science from the University of Kentucky. He has been employed by Unicon Physics, Inc., in Cincinnati, Ohio, since 1995 and provides consulting services to hospitals and clinics. His responsibilities include performing nuclear medicine department audits, developing quality-assurance programs for diagnostic radiology departments, performing quality-control testing on x-ray equipment, and providing training and membership on a number of radiation safety committees. Previously, he was a health physicist at the VA Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky. He was a member of the joint HPS/AAPM working group to develop an ANSI standard for fetal radiation dose calculations. He is a member of the Health Physics Society, the American Association for Physicists in Medicine, the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors, and the Cincinnati Radiation Society.

John Jacobus received both an MS degree in biophysics in 1973 and an MS in bioengineering in 1976 from Pennsylvania State University. From 1975 until retirement in 1994, he served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy. Duty stations included submarine repair ships based in Charleston, South Carolina, and later in Guam with deployments to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and the Philippines. Other assignments included the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and as radiation safety officer at both the Naval Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina, and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. After working as the junior medical physicist in a private hospital in Dallas, Texas, John joined the Radiation Safety Branch at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1995. He was awarded health physics certification in 2000. He became a Fellow of the HPS in 2004.

Marcia Hartman is a medical health physicist at the University of California Davis Medical Center (UCDMC). She has an MS from the University of Florida. She has over 15 years of experience at UCDMC, which is an academic medical center. She performs oversight of clinical and research activities associated with a broad-scope medical license and extensive x-ray machine program. Prior to UC Davis, Marcia worked in radiation protection programs in the nuclear power industry for 10 years. She has been involved in radiological emergency medical response planning in the nuclear power and hospital environments. She is currently a member of the Health Physics Society Public Information Committee, the Medical Response subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee, and the Medical Section, as well as her local chapter.

Linda Sewell received an MS in health physics from the University of Florida in 1982. During her tenure at the University of Florida, she worked at Crystal River Nuclear Power Station and taught classes in health physics at Central Florida Community College. She worked for Arizona Public Service Company at Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station from 1982 to 1987 in the training and radiation protection (RP) groups. In 1987 she joined the RP staff at Pacific Gas and Electric's Diablo Canyon Power Plant. She is currently the dosimetry supervisor at Diablo Canyon. Within the Health Physics Society, Linda has served on the Continuing Education Committee and was cochairman of the Electronic Media Committee in 2000-2001. She is a member of Nuclear Energy Institute's Dosimetry and Recordkeeping task force. Linda was certified by the American Board of Health Physics in 1988.

Andrew Karam is a research assistant professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology and is a member of the HPS Board of Directors. His recent work includes research into natural radiation and radioactivity, and he has also done a significant amount of work in the radiological aspects of homeland security. He has written a number of scientific and technical papers, writes as an associate editor for Health Physics News and for Strahlenschutz Praxis, and has given over 50 presentations and invited lectures on various aspects of health physics. Andrew's other professional experience includes eight years in the Naval Nuclear Power program and work on radioactively contaminated sites for the state of Ohio and a now-defunct environmental consulting firm.

Cynthia Jones is currently employed at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), where she is responsible for independent technical advice and assistance in the analyses of nuclear policy and security issues as the senior technical advisor for nuclear security in the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response. In May 1994, she was awarded NRC's Meritorious Service Award for Health Physics and in 1996 was appointed as the first senior-level advisor for health physics, serving as the Commission-wide resource for providing technical support for major policy, program, and operational initiatives associated with health physics. While continuing her full-time employment at the NRC, Cyndi received her PhD in nuclear engineering in 2001 at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has an MS in nuclear engineering from the University of Maryland, an MS in health physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a BS in physics (mathematics minor) from Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prior to joining the NRC staff, Cyndi worked at the University of California, Los Angeles, as a resident reactor and medical health physicist, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a physicist, and at Oak Ridge Associated Universities as a health physics instructor. She is the author of numerous research papers in health physics.

Robert Brent, MD, PhD, is the Distinguished Louis and Bess Stein Professor of Pediatrics, Radiology, and Pathology and head of the Clinical and Environmental Teratology Laboratory at Jefferson Medical College and duPont Hospital for Children. He obtained all of his degrees from the University of Rochester and did his pediatric training at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was chief of radiation biology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and in 1957 came to Jefferson, where he has been primarily involved in research dealing with the causes and prevention of birth defects and reproductive problems. He has authored over 510 publications, including six books, and has made four movies. He belongs to 15 scientific societies, was one of the founding members and president of the Teratology Society, and was editor of the journal Teratology for 17 years. He was chairman of the Department of Pediatrics for 30 years and, during that period, his research was continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health. He has received many honors, including every award offered by his medical school, the most coveted of which was his selection as the third Distinguished Professor in Jefferson's 175-year history. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. His university has further honored him by creating the Robert L. Brent Professorship for the chairman of pediatrics at Jefferson and at the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, where Brent's laboratory is now located. The Health Physics Society honored him in 2000 with the Robley Evans Award for his lifelong accomplishments in the field of radiation biology and for the counseling that he provides women of reproductive age with regard to the reproductive risks of radiation and other environmental exposures.

Brant Ulsh is a research health scientist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's (NIOSH) Office of Compensation Analysis and Support. In this capacity, his primary duties include scientific analysis of epidemiological and radiological studies for impact on NIOSH's radiation dose-reconstruction program and reporting to the Presidential Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health on matters related to this program. He has worked for NIOSH since 2003. Prior to his current position with NIOSH, he completed a postdoctoral appointment at the McMaster Institute of Applied Radiation Sciences in Ontario, Canada. He was certified by the American Board of Health Physics in 2003 and holds a PhD in radiological health sciences from Colorado State University, as well as an MS in health physics and a BS in nuclear engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He has authored several papers on the topics of radiation biology, radiation cytogenetics, and radiation ecology.

Richard Brey is a full professor and director of the Health Physics Program at Idaho State University (ISU). Additionally, he serves as the director of the Environmental Assessment Laboratory at ISU. He holds an AAS degree in nuclear power technology from Terra Technical College. He also holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in health physics from Purdue University. While at Purdue University, Brey was an Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Fellow, an HPS Fellowship recipient, and an INPO Graduate Fellow. Prior to this, he worked in applied health physics at the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Power Station in Bridgman, Michigan. He is a member of the HPS, the American Nuclear Society, and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. He has served as secretary and also as a president of the Eastern Idaho Chapter of the HPS. Currently he is the chair of the HPS Academic Education Committee. He is certified by the American Board of Health Physics.

Kelly Classic, ATE associate editor, is a medical health physicist at Mayo Clinic Rochester and is certified by the American Board of Medical Health Physics. She has an MS degree in health physics and a BS degree in environmental health from Purdue University. She also has an MA degree in organizational management from Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1984, Classic was brought to Mayo Clinic Rochester as the assistant radiation safety officer and later also became the secretary to the organizational Radiation Safety Committee and Radioactive Drug Research Committee. She has been active in the Health Physics Society since 1984 serving on several committees, as section president for the RSO Section, and as a member of the Board of Directors. She has also held the position of president for the North Central Chapter of the Health Physics Society and participated on the Local Arrangements Committee for that chapter when an annual meeting was held in Minneapolis. In addition to her activities with the Ask the Experts Web site, she is an associate editor for the Society publication Operational Radiation Safety and is a Council member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.

Tom Gesell is a professor of health physics at Idaho State University (ISU), where he also directs the Environmental Monitoring Program. He has a BS degree in physics from San Diego State University and MS and PhD degrees in health physics from the University of Tennessee. Prior to joining ISU in 1991, Dr. Gesell directed the Department of Energy's (DOE) Radiological and Environmental Sciences Laboratory located on the Idaho National Laboratory site, where he managed several programs related to protection of health and environment. Before joining DOE in 1981, he was an associate professor of health physics at the University of Texas at Houston, where he taught in health physics and conducted research on dosimetry and environmental radiation, including radon. He has numerous papers in the literature and has published, with Merril Eisenbud, the fourth edition of Environmental Radioactivity (Academic Press, 1997). Gesell is a Fellow and past director of the Health Physics Society and a distinguished emeritus member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP). He served six years on the Environmental Protection Agency's Radiation Advisory Committee and serves on committees of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council.

Fred Baes received a BS in biology at the University of Tennessee in 1972 and an MS in biology at Emory University in 1977. He then began a career at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where initially he developed computer codes, models, and data bases for assessing doses from radionuclides and risks from hazardous chemicals through terrestrial food-chain pathways. Later he became involved in air-pollution studies and explored the use of chemical analysis of tree rings as biomonitors for trace metal pollution and the effects of air pollution and acid deposition on forests. He later became a regulatory analyst and training instructor for the Department of Energy (DOE), developing workshops on environmental laws and regulations and serving as editor of two newsletters on environmental laws and regulations. This latter work eventually evolved into an Internet-based effort, and Fred is now the Webmaster for the DOE Office of Environmental Policy and Guidance Web site. In 1999, Fred became the Webmaster for the Health Physics Society.