Current News

Kendall Berry, MSPH, HPS Website Redevelopment & Deployment Task Force Chairperson

We have launched the new version of hps.org and our new membership platform. We have received many positive comments, and we are thrilled that you like the website. Naturally, there were some unexpected issues, and we are continuing to work daily to improve the functionality of the new website. If you happen to stumble upon something that doesn’t seem to be working correctly, please email a description of your observation and include the URL address where the issue is occurring to webeic@hps.org. We are actively working on the following issues and hope to have these resolved in the coming days: job and résumé postings, updating affiliates, and the Ask the Experts tool.

Committee leadership, please take a moment, review your committee pages, and provide updates to webeic@hps.org.

All HPS members were transferred to the new HPS membership database so you should not need to create a new profile. Please use your previous HPS member email to log into the new platform using this email as your name and password initially. Once in, you will have the option to update any information including your password. You will also have access to the journal and access to register for the Annual Meeting. If you have many e-mail addresses and forget which is associated with your HPS membership, please reach out to members@hps.org for assistance. The membership directory is currently unavailable, and we are working with the membership platform company to address this situation as soon as possible.

Thanks for your support and patience!

AI-generated image courtesy of GROK

Support the Health Physics Society (HPS) and win an amazing Hyundai Ioniq 5 or a bunch of cash in the 2025 HPS raffle! Chances of winning are excellent because only a limited number of entries will be allowed; we are only offering 2,000 total tickets for this raffle.

Click here to donate today for a chance to win one of our three prizes:

• • • • • • • • • • Top Prize: $42,600 credit toward a Hyundai Ioniq 5 or $42,600 cash (or 50/50, see below)
                  • 2nd Place: $1,000
                  • 3rd Place: $500

This raffle has a twist. It is a 50/50 raffle until we sell 1,082 tickets. The Health Physics Fund and the Top Prize winner will equally split the proceeds minus $1,500 for the 2nd and 3rd place prizes. Once we sell 1,082 tickets, the top prize is $42,600 towards a Hyundai Ioniq or cash.

The winners will be announced on 16 July at the HPS Members/Business Meeting!

Proceeds from the raffle will support the work of HPS committees and core services—including those focused on education, science support, standards, public information, and professional development—helping to advance initiatives that promote radiation safety, foster collaboration across sectors, and strengthen the professional community.

Manar Sakalla, HPS Society Support Committee

Curious about how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are reshaping radiation protection?

Join us for an introductory webinar designed to demystify these powerful technologies and explore their growing impact on our field. Whether you’re new to AI/ML or looking to better understand the fundamentals, this session will prepare you for the exciting innovations to be discussed during the plenary session at the upcoming 70th Health Physics Society Annual Meeting in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin!

Speakers will be Shaheen Dewji, Martin Graffigna, and David Gonzalez. The webinar will take place Friday, 30 May, noon–1pm Eastern.

Don’t miss this opportunity to get ahead of the curve! Register here.

Mike Lewandowski, FHPS, CHP, Local Arrangements Committee

It’s time to register for the 70th Health Physics Society (HPS) Annual Meeting, which will be held 13–17 July 2025 at Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to excellent oral and poster presentations and outstanding continuing education courses, there’s an opportunity to visit a state-of-the-art isotope production facility. Spend the morning of Tuesday, 15 July, on a technical tour of the SHINE isotope production facility in Janesville, Wisconsin. A bus will take tour attendees from the Hilton Monona Terrace hotel to the SHINE facility, where we’ll get an introduction to the exciting work done at this facility. Learn about the technologies used to produce Lu-177 (shipping now) and Mo-99 (under construction). Learn more about SHINE here. Tour information is available on the annual meeting microsite.

No HPS meeting is complete without a commemorative shirt, hat, or other swag. The Local Arrangements Committee has partnered with Madison Top Company to offer logo shirts, hats, and water bottles. Check out the site here. Order before 15 June for pickup at the annual meeting.

You can find more details about all the social events, technical presentations, and continuing education on the Madison meeting microsite. Check back often as the Local Arrangements Committee, Program Committee, and HPS Headquarters staff will be adding information about the meeting to this site up until the meeting.

If you have questions about the meeting or Madison, feel free to contact LAC Cochairs Jessica Joyce and Jason Rusch.

William Irwin III, CHP, FHPS, Section Awards Chairman

The president of the Homeland Security and Emergency Response Section, Steve Sugarman, CHP, is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Homeland Security and Emergency Response Section Distinguished Service Award: Doug Draper, CHP, FHPS, and K.L. “Ken” Groves, FHPS.

The awards will be formally presented at the Homeland Security and Emergency Response Section Business Meeting at the 70th Health Physics Society Annual Meeting in Madison this year.

Congratulations to the awardees. Their award citations and pictures will be in the December 2025 Health Physics Journal.

Latha Vasudevan, Chapter Public Relations Chair

Zavier N. Ndum presenting during the STC_HPS meeting on 11 April
Photo courtesy of Latha Vasudevan

At the recent State of Texas Chapter of Health Physics Society (STC-HPS) spring meeting, Zavier N. Ndum, a PhD candidate at Texas A&M University, Department of Nuclear Engineering, and past president of STC-HPS, presented the talk “Advancing Health Physics & Radiation Protection Through Domain-Knowledge-Embedded Large-Language-Model Agents.”

Zavier’s work shows how locally deployed generative-AI or large language model (LLM) agents can automate complex workflows and slash the time it takes to:

• Navigate bulky Nuclear Regulatory Commission/International Atomic Energy Agency regulations.
• Set up dose simulations in MCNP, FLUKA, GEANT4.
• Draft shielding or ALARA reports from hours to minutes, while keeping proprietary data secured.

Zavier’s work, which builds upon a proof-of-concept paper AutoFLUKA, is paving the way for innovative solutions in radiation detection, dosimetry, and shielding.

Zavier is running a short, anonymous survey of health physics practitioners to gauge where the profession most needs automation. It takes less than 8 minutes, and no identifying information is collected.

Add your voice: Take the survey. Your insights will steer the next iteration of his open-source framework, AutoFLUKA, and related AI helpers. Thank you for advancing the field!

Latha Vasudevan, Chapter Public Relations Chair

The State of Texas Chapter of the Health Physics Society (STC-HPS) hosted a two-day spring meeting 11–12 April 2025 at the Rudder Tower, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. On the evening of 10 April, the chapter had its executive council meeting, where the members discussed all the chapter activities and the new initiatives. We are so grateful to Radiation Detection Company for their generous sponsorship of our breakfast on the morning of 11 April. The meeting started off with opening remarks from STC-HPS President Erich Fruchtnicht, followed by his presentation “Industrial NORM: Where It Comes from and Why.”

The highlight of the meeting was the visit from HPS President-elect Mike Lewandowski, who spoke about the HPS and the advantages of Society membership. Mike was very cooperative and shared his knowledge and experience with the students and professionals. Students from Kenyatta University, Kenya, were able to participate virtually and presented their radon study. The chapter also hosted an instrumentation workshop on the evening of 11 April, and undergraduate nuclear engineering students from Texas A&M participated.

The spring meeting is typically meant as a platform for undergraduate/graduate students to display their project presentations and network with health physics professionals. The following individuals won the best paper presentation awards for graduate and undergraduate categories, respectively: first place ($250) Sofia Lara-Ramos, “Electron- Beam Technology: Fundamentals, Applications, and Safety”; second place ($150): Emily Schaefer, “Dosimetry 101-Basics of an Occupational Radiation Dosimetry Program”; third place ($100): Zavier Ndum Ndum, “Leveraging a Large Language Model (LLM)-Based Agent Framework for Enhanced Knowledge Retrieval in Radiation.” Zavier also wants to explore future AI tools in the health physics profession. For the undergraduate category, first place ($250): Jimmy Huynh, “The Comparison of Radiation Use in Common Procedures Amongst Didactic Pediatric Fluoroscopic Units”; second place ($150): Giraud Griffin, “Comparative Study of Scintillator Materials for Optimizing Energy Resolution in Electromagnetic Calorimeters Using the Geant4 Monte Carlo Toolkit”.

Linda Morris and Latha Vasudevan served as science fair judges for the 2025 Texas Science and Engineering Fair and, on behalf of the chapter, awarded a plaque for high school student Yosef Herrara for his radiation-related project. Yosef presented his project “The Power of a Star in a Jar: Using Nuclear Fusion for Radioisotope Production” at the STC meeting. Aylin Ozus, Bellaire High School, Texas, also presented her project “Fetal Radiation Exposure Monitoring of Pregnant Employees Across Multiple Departments and Areas in a Hospital” at the meeting. It was quite impressive to note the detailed study performed by the high school students. The chapter presented Amazon gift cards to the high school students as a token of appreciation.

The chapter appreciates all the speakers for their outstanding contribution and all the EC team members for their unwavering support for making this meeting tremendously successful.

Mike Lewandowski and Zavier Ndum introducing the students from Kenyatta University, Kenya
Photo courtesy of Erich Fruchtnicht

Linda Morris (left) and Latha Vasudevan (right) presenting STC-HPS plaque to high school student Yosef Herrara
Photo courtesy of STC-HPS

STC_HPS EC members and others with Mike Lewandowski
Photo courtesy of Abby Kurwitz

The May course offerings have been posted on the Courses page of the HPS website. Information on the following courses is available:

Applied Health Physics—ORAU’s Professional Training Programs

Health Physics Statistics Online Training Course—ORAU’s Professional Training Program

Facility Decommissioning Training Course—Argonne National Laboratory

Laser Safety Officer (LSO) Training—Kentek Corporation

Thomas Johnson, Faculty Advisor

Best presentation awardees, left to right, Best Master’s – Christian Grabowski, Best PhD – Nathaniel Rutter, and Best Overall – Maelle Coupannec with chapter president Deirdre Elder.
Photo courtesy of Tom Johnson

The joint Central Rocky Mountain Chapter and Colorado State University Student Branch Annual Technical Meeting was held on 17 April 2025.

There were 12 presentations by graduate students and 4 by undergraduates. Student presentations were evaluated by members of the chapter, and awards given in the categories of best undergraduate or master’s presentation, best PhD presentation, and best overall. All were in agreement that evaluation of the presentations was difficult, due to both excellent presentation skills and outstanding content of all the presentations. Health Physics Society President-elect Mike Lewandowski presented to finish a great meeting.

Hollie Zimmerman, Chapter Secretary

The Western New York Chapter of the Health Physics Society was excited to host its spring 2025 meeting on 30 April 2025! We kicked off the day with a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour of the Cardinal Health Radiopharmacy in Rochester, New York. Attendees had the opportunity to explore the facility, meet with an experienced pharmacist, gain valuable insights into the day-to-day operations of a working radiopharmacy, and learn about their internal and external radiation protection programs.

From there, we headed over to the office of Upstate Medical Physics P.C. for lunch and a pair of outstanding virtual presentations, attended both in person and online by our members.

Dr. Ian Waugh from the University of Utah presented an engaging talk titled “Radiotheranostics Update.” His presentation provided a timely overview of the field, tracking its evolution, current landscape, and future direction—particularly relevant as many institutions in our region are actively building or expanding radiotheranostics programs.

Next, Dr. Ronald Goans of MJW Corporation delivered the insightful presentation “Fetal Thyroid Dose from Maternal Administration of Radioiodine: The REAC/TS Experience.” Drawing from a wealth of data and collaborative insights, his talk offered a deep dive into this critical topic and was very well received by our audience.

We extend our sincere thanks to Cardinal Health for welcoming us into their facility and to Upstate Medical Physics P.C. for hosting the second half of our event. Most importantly, we are grateful to our guest speakers for their engaging, informative presentations.

This hybrid meeting format—offering both in-person and virtual attendance—continues to be a success, and we look forward to building on that momentum as we grow and connect our chapter in the year ahead.

Steven Rademacher, Section Awards Chairman

The president of the Military Health Physics Section, H. Timothy Mikulski, is proud to announce the section’s 2025 awards:

• The John C. Taschner Leadership Award: CAPT Greg Fairchild, MSC, USN
• The Superior Civilian Service Award: Dr. David Schauer
• The Young Military Health Physicist of the Year: LCDR David Boozer, MSC, USN

The awards will be formally presented at the Military Health Physics Section business meeting at the 2025 Health Physics Society Annual Meeting in Madison this year.

Congratulations to the awardees; their award citations and pictures will be in the December 2025 Health Physics Journal.

Martha Dibblee, Section Newsletter Editor

The Health Physics Society (HPS) Accelerator Section is seeking articles about ongoing research, regulatory issues, incidents, new technology, decommissioning, targets, physics and engineering, student projects, and general news from the accelerator industry. Articles about recent government grant cuts and layoffs and general enterprise disruption would be appreciated.

Any current news that would be useful to the section from other HPS sections is welcome. Send news article to HPSaccelerator@gmail.com. Please send pictures separately from text. The second quarter newsletter is slated for June.

Andy Karam, HPS Marketing Committee

Tucked away on the Health Physics Society (HPS) website in the Member’s Section are the HPS committees, where valuable, information-packed links are found. Therefore, I wanted to launch the Committee Profile feature by telling you about the Standards Committee (chaired by Antonio Triventi), how the standards work, and what they have to offer. With 40 standards available for download by members, there’s bound to be at least one thing you’ll want to take a gander at.

What the Standards Committee does is to help develop accredited standards that affect various aspects of our profession. If you’re trying to set up a tritium bioassay program or a company rad worker training program, to develop radiation safety policies and procedures for x-ray diffraction or fluorescence analysis equipment, to start up a cargo security screening system, or to work in any of a number of other areas – there’s a standard you can download to help you with your task. With two major subcommittees – N43 (Equipment for Non-Medical Radiation Applications, chaired by Craig Jones) and N13 (Radiation Protection, chaired by Matthew Barnett) the Standards Committee works directly with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop the standards that you and I can download for free.

How the standards process works begins with selecting a topic – something for which no standard yet exists, or an existing standard that’s become stale, perhaps due to changing technology or updated practices. Then the appropriate work group chair needs to form a working group, likely beginning with cajoling a poor, overworked, highly qualified health physicist (HP) to chair the working group and then pleading with other HPs to fill out the working group. These people might all be HPS members, but they might also come from any of a number of government agencies or industry or even be individual HPs with an interest in (and, hopefully, knowledge of) the topic in question. And then they start to work!

Some of the most important work comes at the start, when the members of the working group scope out their work. If they’re revising an existing standard (for example), then they’re trying to decide what needs to be changed – are they doing minor updates and revisions or a major overhaul. In either case, exactly what needs to be changed and why? What will the new standard look like? Do they need new graphics as well? What’s the best way to present the information? Who’s the intended reader and what level of writing and technical information is appropriate for them? And so forth. For a new standard, they’re building it from scratch, addressing those questions and more. And then the researching and writing begins.

The hardest part, however, comes at the end – that’s when the members of the working group have to put all the pieces together and then reach consensus amongst themselves on their work. And after that, it’s sent out for review/approval by the respective standards committee, where comments are provided and addressed. Sometimes the comment resolution phase can take many months, and it is possible not every comment will be accepted. It’s a lot of work, but when it all comes together it’s a nice feeling – almost as nice as seeing the final document online and ready for download. And – in case you’re wondering – yes, I’ve been through the process a few times, albeit not as a member of the HPS Standards Committee, and I’ve got a lot of respect for those who keep signing up for more. Especially since this work tends to be done after dinner and on weekends – and for no pay.

Anyhow – there’s a lot more I could say, but I’m already past the word count, so I should wrap up here. If you’ve read this far and you’re already using these standards – good for you! And, if your schedule permits, contact Antonio, Craig, or Matthew to ask them if you can help out! If, on the other hand, you’re not all that familiar with what they’ve done, click here and take a look – see what’s there that looks useful, or just plain interesting.

Kendall Williams, WiRP President

The Women in Radiation Protection (WiRP) Section is excited to announce that nominations are now open for two leadership roles within our Section. This is a meaningful opportunity for committed members to contribute to WiRP’s growth and future direction.

Open Positions

President-Elect

• • • Serves a one-year term before transitioning into a two-year term as president
    • Ensures leadership continuity and strategic planning

Director

• • • Serves a three-year term
    • Supports board initiatives and plays a key role in WiRP Section governance

How to Nominate

We encourage all prospective nominees to review the responsibilities outlined in our bylaws prior to submitting a nomination.

If you or someone you know is interested in serving, please submit nominations by 21 May 2025 to both:

• Kendall Williams, WiRP President
• Caleigh Samuels, WiRP Secretary

Please include a brief bio for yourself or the person you are nominating in the email. Thank you for considering this opportunity to help shape the future of WiRP. We look forward to your nominations!