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Graduate Research: Idaho State University

USTUR Collaborates with ISU (2006 – 2012)

 

Meet the Graduates

Majid Khalaf, Ph.D. 2012
George Tabatadze, Ph.D. 2012
Maia Avtandilashvili, Ph.D. 2011
Shane Weber, M.S. 2011
Travis Matthews, M.S. 2010
Naz Fallahian, Ph.D. 2008

Liesl Germann, M.S.

2008

Graduate Profiles

In 2006, the USTUR entered into a collaborative relationship with Idaho State University (ISU). Through this collaboration, the USTUR was able to obtain the Health Physics specialist services of Dr. Richard Brey, the Director of ISU’s Health Physics program, and to share its unique dataset with students who had an interest in internal dosimetry. Initially the USTUR funded one Ph.D. student; however, due to a reduction in DOE funding, the subcontract was discontinued in 2008 and two no-cost extensions were granted to carry forward unspent funding until 2010. As a product of this collaboration, four Ph.D. and three M.S. degrees were awarded, and five of the students published eight papers. The USTUR’s former director, Dr. Anthony C. James, served as an advisor and/or graduate committee member for most of these students, and was an author on two of the published papers. Two graduates, Maia Avtandilashvili and George Tabatadze, were hired by the USTUR.

The news feed below summarizes the development of the “Internal Dosimetry Research Team” that was formed out of the USTUR/ISU’s collaboration – from its foundation at an ISU-hosted “IMBA ExpertTM Training Workshop”, through several graduate research workshops and student presentations at annual Health Physics Society meetings.

Maia Avtandilashvili Successfully Defends Ph.D. Dissertation

USTUR Research Associate, Maia Avtandilashvili, has employed advanced statistical techniques to study the long-term retention of high-fired PuO2 in the lungs of two USTUR donors (Cases 0202 and 0407). Dr. Avtandilashvili found that the current ICRP models may significantly underestimate the dose from this material… (read more)

2011 Health Physics Society Meeting: Student Poster Presentations

Four Idaho State University students – George Tabatadze, Maia Avtandilashvili, Majid Khalaf and Robert Acha – gave poster presentations on their Ph.D. research at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society in West Palm Beach, FL, June 26-30, 2011.

Tabatadze, Avtandilashvili, and Khalaf are conducting Ph.D. research that utilizes USTUR materials and data. Mr. Acha is conducting Monte Carlo simulations of a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory torso phantom. Dr. Tony James, USTUR, is serving on each of these student’s graduate committees.

Read Abstracts and Download Presentations

February 12-14, 2010 Workshop
Workshop attendees. Top: Shane Weber, Majid Khalaf, Nino Chelidze, George Tabatadze, Sergei Tolmachev; Bottom: Joy Epps, Tony James, Stacey McCord

USTUR Faculty conducted a 2½-day graduate student workshop in Richland, WA for three Ph.D. and two M.S. students from Idaho State University’s (ISU) Graduate Program in Health Physics.  We identified three new collaborative research topics and progressed two ongoing studies.

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Students Present Research at the Annual Health Physics Meeting

Idaho State University students, George Tabatadze, Nino Chelidze, Dan Mecham, and Maia Avtandilashvili presented their research at the 54th Annual Health Physics Society Meeting, 12-16 July 2009, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Abstracts and Presentation Links

ISU/USTUR Graduate Student Auto-Segments Case 0102 Head Phantom
Grad_voxel_Tabatadze
Three-dimensional voxel images for A) all regions of interest, B) cortical bone voxels only, and C) bone marrow/trabecular spongiosa voxels only.

George Tabatadze, M.S., a Ph.D. candidate in the Idaho State University (ISU)/USTUR Internal Dosimetry Research Group, with the help of medical physicists at the Portneuf Medical Center, Pocatello, ID, has successfully created 3-dimensional voxel images of the regions of interest in the DOE Case 0102 241Am head phantom. He used the complete set of contiguous 2-dimensional CT-scan slice (DICOM) images published on the USTUR web site.

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2006-2008 Internal Dosimetry Working Group News

Archive 2008
Archive 2007
Archive 2006