USTUR director, Sergei Tolmachev, was re-appointed to serve as a member of the editorial board for the Japan Health Physics Society’s journal. He has been appointed for a two-year term from July 2019 through June 2021.
Last December, the USTUR signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Centre for Radiation Chemical and Environmental Hazards (CRCE), Public Health England. This partnership formalizes collaboration between the two organizations, and allows PHE to share its newly developed internal dosimetry software, Taurus, with the USTUR for research purposes. Initially, the USTUR will work with the base model, which is designed for operational dose assessment. However, PHE is also designing an advanced version of Taurus for use in research, which the USTUR will use to model individual registrant cases. This partnership was facilitated by Sergei Tolmachev (USTUR director) and Anthony Riddell (PHE-CRCE Internal Dosimetry Group leader).
USTUR Assistant Research Professor George Tabatadze was appointed as a member of the WSU Radiation Safety Committee (RSC). The RSC establishes and ensures compliance with radiation protection policies, reviews applications for and approves use of radioactive materials and radiation producing machines, and audits Radiation Safety Office records.
A Postdoctoral Research Associate position is available immediately at the USTUR. The research will focus on evaluation of uncertainties in radiation dose assessment for internally deposited radionuclides in support of radiation epidemiology. The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to work on several biokinetic modeling projects in close collaboration with operational health physicists, biostatisticians, and radiochemists.
The Centre for Environmental Radioactivity (CERAD), held a series of workshops in conjunction with its annual conference. USTUR director, Sergei Tolmachev, was invited to present at two of these workshops: Human Health Effects Following Severe Nuclear Events (February 3) and Particle Characteristics and Nuclear Forensic (February 5).
The FY2018 USTUR Annual Report has been completed and is available for download. It summarizes organization, activities, and scientific accomplishments at the USTUR from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018.
Maia Avtandilashvili was invited to provide a keynote lecture at the 12th International Conference on the Health Effects of Incorporated Radionuclides (HEIR). This conference, which is held every 4 years, focuses on topics related to radionuclides that have been incorporated into the human body. In total, USTUR faculty gave four presentations at HEIR – two by Dr. Avtandilashvili and two by USTUR director, Sergei Tolmachev.
Three tours of the USTUR’s laboratory facility were given to attendees of the Low Dose Conference in Richland, WA, September 30 – October 3, 2018.
Prior to the meeting, Oleg Belyakov of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gave a presentation at the USTUR titled, “Overview of NAHU/ARBR Radiation Biology Coordinated Research Projects (CRPs)”. This was followed by a tour of the laboratory facility, which includes an autopsy room, a radiochemistry laboratory, an alpha spectrometry counting room, and a sample storage area.
During the conference, several additional individuals expressed interest in a laboratory tour. A tour was given to Michael Bellamy and Sandra Davern of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Yuliya Lyamzina of Fukushima Medical University, Japan. The different types of tissue materials that are available at the USTUR, such as frozen organs and paraffin embedded tissue blocks, were discussed. Following the tour, Maia Avtandilashvili demonstrated unique features of the USTUR’s academic version of the Integrated Modules for Bioassay Analysis (IMBA) biokinetic modeling software. An additional tour was given to Doug Boreham (Bruce Power, Canada), Stephanie Puukila (Flinders University, Australia and Laurentian University, Canada), Jake Pirkkanen (Laurentian University, Canada), and Christopher Thome (Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Canada).
The 2018 Meeting of the Conference on Radiation & Health (CRH) was held in conjunction with the Radiation Research Society’s (RRS) annual meeting in Chicago, IL, September, 23-26, 2018. The USTUR was well represented at the joint meetings, with one invited lecture and one poster at CRH, and two posters at the RRS meeting.
The invited lecture was given by USTUR director, Sergei Tolmachev, as part of a special session on International and domestic health studies among radiation exposed. This special session was organized by the Department of Energy’s Office of Health and Safety.
Sergei Tolmachev and Maia Avtandilashvili were appointed to serve on the new National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP) scientific committee (SC 6-12) on the Development of Models for Brain Dosimetry for Internally Deposited Radionuclides. Dr. Tolmachev will serve as vice chairman.