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Previous Registries Directors and Staff

The National Plutonium Registry: Initial Staff

W. Daggett Norwood – The founding director of the National Plutonium Registry. Norwood was a physician whose undergraduate education was in electrical engineering and who had figured prominently in the establishment of the Hanford site’s medical program.

Carlos E. Newton, Jr. – A Battelle-Northwest staff member who was a board certified health physicist. Newton directed the health physics aspects of the National Plutonium Registry.

Dorothy Potter – Served as the secretary and general administrative assistant for the National Plutonium Registry.

1970s

1970: Carlos Newton Jr. was given the title of Associate Director. Newton was a health physicist who provided half-time scientific support to the USTR. This appointment could be seen as recognition of the health physics aspects of the program.

1972: John A. Norcross became the USTR director following the founding director’s, W.D. Norwood, retirement. Norcross was a retired U.S. Army physician.

1973: W.D. Norwood filled in as interim director after Norcross became ill and gave up the directorship.

1976: Bryce D. Breitenstein Jr. became the USTR director on a half-time basis. Breitenstein was an internist with considerable experience in private practice and a master’s degree in public health.

1978: Robert H. Moore was appointed as half-time director for the newly established USUR.

1980s

1980: Margery Swint assumed responsibility for medical support to the USTR and was named Associate Director.

1980: Kenneth R. Heid, a Battelle health physicist, was also named Associate Director as Newton retired.

1982: Margery Swint became the USTR director.

1983: Ronald L. Kathren, a board certified health physicist from Battelle, was added as a consultant and within a few months he replaced Heid as scientific support.

1989: Margery Swint assumed directorship of both the USTR and the USUR as the USUR’s founding director, Robert H. Moore, retired. Swint directs the USTR and USUR for only a short time before accepting a promotion at Hanford Environmental Health Foundation.

1989: Ronald L. Kathren became the first person who was not a physician to head the programs.

1990s and Onward

1990: Ronald E. Filipy, a radiobiologist with specific expertise in animal studies with plutonium, was added to the staff.

1999: Ronald E. Filipy became director when Ronald Kathren retired.

2005: Anthony C. James became the director when Ronald E. Filipy retired.

2010: Sergei Y. Tolmachev, the current USTUR director, was promoted from the radiochemistry laboratory manager to director when Dr. James retired.