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University Daily Kansan Thursday, March 7, 1963
Radiation Effects Interest Health Physics Students
By Dolores Orman
Means of protecting mankind from the damaging effects of nuclear radiation, and research on its peaceful uses in fields such as medicine, chemistry, and industry, are the ultimate problems concerning graduate students in health physics at the University of Kansas.
Frank E. Hoecker, chairman of the Department of Radiation Biophysics, said, "health physics involves not only the study and development of methods of radiation protection but studies on the effects of radiation on biological and non-biological matter.
IN ACTUALITY, health physics is a "unifying science." Prof. Hoecker said. It requires a knowledge of biology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, nuclear engineering, and the many other related fields.
"Health physics, also deals with the specification and determination of the permissible levels of radiation, specifically the amount that can be taken into the body," Prof. Hoecker said.
Health physics—a branch of radiation biophysics—gained status as a major new field in 1949 when the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission through the Oak Ridge (Tenn.) Institute of Nuclear Studies, instituted a graduate student fellowship program in health physics leading to a master's degree in radiation biophysics.
The University of Kansas became a part of the AEC health physics program in 1956. This was due largely to the contacts Prof. Hoeker made while attending the first International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva the year before.
PROF. HOECKER explained that he had been especially interested in the AEC program since its inception in 1949.
Through activities of the Health Physics Society, a program for the certification of health physicists was initiated in 1960. Prof. Hoecker was among the initial 100 certified health physicists in the United States.
At the time KU became a study center in the AEC health physics program, there were only three other centers: the Universities of Rochester, Washington, and Vanderbilt.
Now there are eight centers, the others being the Universities of Puerto Rico, Michigan, California (at Berkeley), and Harvard.
SINCE THE AEC health physics program was set up at KU in 1956, about 32 graduate students have earned their master's degrees and three of these are now candidates for the doctorate.
The AEC fellowships, $2,500 plus allotments for dependents, cover the student's nine-month study (2 semesters) at the University center and three summer months of on-the-job training at one of the seven government laboratories: Argonne, Ill.; Upton, N.Y.; Richland, Wash.; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and Maravurez, Puerto Rico.
The fellowships are renewable for the one or two more semesters required for the student to complete study for his master's degree.
Prof. Hoecker said about 16 AEC fellows and other graduate students are currently studying in health physics. He said most of AEC students at KU earn their master's degrees and that they usually do their field work at Idaho Falls.
IN THE FIELD TRAINING, said Prof. Hoecker, "the students run the nuclear reactor, study the transportation of radioactive matter, the production and separation of radioactive matter and the problem of disposal of radioactive wastes from the nuclear reactors."
The students also gain experience in problems concerning high-voltage machines, metal-preparation and metal-recovery, and radiation measurement and shielding.
It was the aspect of on-the-job training which especially attracted Allen Valentine, graduate student from Waynoka, Okla., to the health physics field.
"IT'S THE KIND of study where you have to go out and use all the knowledge you ever learned," said George Wenz, graduate student from Baraboo, Wis.
Not all the students currently studying health physics at KU are
civilians. In fact there are a large number of enlisted men.
First Lt. John Devanney had done civilian work for the Army at the Aberdeen, Md., proving grounds as an experimental nuclear physicist.
DAVID KOPP, a first lieutenant in the Air Force was also selected for study in health physics. He had been stationed at Shaw Air Force Base, N.C., as a sanitary and industrial hygiene inspector.
A graduate in mechanical engineering, Kopp said, "I have always been interested in the life sciences. Health physics is a blending of mechanics and the life sciences."
What do the academic courses in health physics include? At KU students take courses in radiation biophysics, electronics, dosimetry (measurement of radiation doses), legal and public relations aspects of radiation protection, and the diagnostic and therapeutic uses of radioactive isotopes.
VALENTINE CONSIDERED the course in tracer techniques one of the most interesting. He explained that rats are given radioactive matter, then are "put away."
The animals are then dissected and through the use of instruments such as geiger counters the path of the radioactive matter is traced throughout the animals' bodies.
Several of the students at KU are completing their final semester for masters degrees. One of these is Wayne Hansen, Ricelak, Wis., who majored in chemistry.
Hensen's research topic is "Radiation Effects of X-ray and High-Energy Neutrons on Grasshopper Embryos." He explained that he is trying to find out what the biological effects of X-rays are in comparison to neutrons, which are little known.
HANSEN TAKES grown grasshoppers, collects the eggs, and after a 14-day development of the embryos, radiates them in measured doses. He then plots a survival curve involving the percentage of eggs that survived and those that did not. The experiment takes five weeks.
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