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A Review of the Activities Coordinated by the AIRRS Section of the Health Physics Society Since the Last National Health Physics Society Meeting (July 2017 to June 2018)The Academic Industrial Research Radiation Safety (AIRRS) section of the Health Physics Society has had a very active year since the last National meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina. The AIRRS section typically had monthly meetings where goals and timelines for significant projects were discussed with the leadership team. The list of accomplishments will be discussed on two sections, administrative and process.Administrative:General Elections for the upcoming year were held in and winners were declared in late September 2017. The officers for 2019 are:Daniel MenchacaCatherine RibaudoBryan EdwardsJohn HagemanFrederic J. Mis will be the past president.Our liaison with the National Society is Thomas Morgan.Financials: The AIRRS section has $35,000.00 in from membership fees.Catherine Ribaudo will be retained as Secretary until the next election cycle. A Section Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, July 17th at the National Meeting in Cleveland.Process:The AIRRS section was actively in the northeast and nationally by either sponsoring a local chapter meeting specifically associated with AIRRS activities as well as staffing a national meeting in Washington, DC. The two events occurred which were initiated by the AIRRS section to raise awareness of students who are interested in Health Physics or are interested in being involved with Health Physics. In March, the Western NY Chapter of the Health Physics held its semi-annual meeting at the University of St. John Fisher, where an emphasis was made to attract staff and students to attend the meeting. The second event was the Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) USA Science and Engineering Festival held at the Washington DC Convention Center from April 6 to 8th. In both cases the events were resounding successes. First and foremost, the recognition of who was critical in making these efforts successful must be made. For Saint John Fisher, Carl Tarantino and David Conover were involved from day 1 in ensuring this effort went forward. Dan McSweeny at the College was a willing receptor and ensured that the college provided the correct facilities. The meeting was attended by Dr. Nolan Hertel, who as always, gives a great talk on the subjects at hand. This time it included; What’s out there for Health Physicist? What research that he has done that has an impact on day to day life, and how was it accomplished. Carl Tarantino developed a wonderful presentation on what careers are out there for college students, which because of personal reasons, he was not able to deliver himself, but was still presented by this author and received significant attention from college students who had no idea Health Physics even existed. At the end of the meeting, the enthusiasm for having similar type meetings annually or biannually was on everyone’s mind. While St. John Fisher was in Rochester, representatives from Upstate Medical Center and Buffalo were speaking about having similar sessions at their schools, encouraging growth in Health Physics program recruiting there and having the academic staff and researchers show what their programs are about. There is now momentum on doing this again in the future, and this will be discussed at the next chapter meeting on where to go. Since there is significant industrial use of radioactive materials, and a number of academic researchers in the chapter, including from Cornell University and Roswell Cancer institute, a number of learning opportunities for students will be presented.For the STEM Festival, Catherine Ribaudo was an organizing machine, from ensuring that there were sufficient individuals to staff the booth, to requesting and receiving the Health Physics Society banner and Demonstration kits. All the pieces and players arrived on time. There were some initial difficulties in assembling the demonstrations, but since all members who staffed the booths were of exceptional intelligence, the demonstration projects were (eventually) put together correctly and provided a great show to all who stopped by.And did we get a lot of people stopping by. I do not know of one individual who was not hoarse with a sore throat from speaking to the young students interested in radiation, to their parents or to curious individuals who just wanted to know more. Special thanks have to go out to the Virginia and Baltimore/Washington Chapters on stepping up and staffing the booths. Students from my alma mater, UMass at Lowell came down in strength and demonstrated to all with the communication skills why that is such a great school. We were active in the booth from the start on Friday to the end of the Festival on Sunday at 4:00 PM. Below are some pictures that only show a fraction what happened at the STEM Festival. But as a result of the AIRRS section getting its feet wet in these two events, we now have an understanding of what it takes to do a great job in the future. We have lessons learned and ideas for further improvement, so the future looks bright.Going forward, we have learned that the STEM meeting occurs once every two years. In order to best prepare for the next meeting, a sub-group of the AIRRS section to start to prepare for the STEM meeting. This would include new and updated displays as well as additional support so that several displays could be functional at once.Additionally, AIRRS information could be provided at least twice during the academic year at various chapters. The success that occurred at the Western NY chapter meeting has led to a potentially larger meeting at a major northeastern university, which would also include sponsors from various industries looking for Health Physicists. Frederic J. MisFrederic J. Mis, Ph.D., CHPAIRRS PresidentHe’s still limited to 5 mSv per year.A UMass of Lowell student discussing K-40 in bananas and Brazil nuts.Bob Gunter pontificating and a UMass at Lowell student translating. Early Sunday morning. The crowds were soon 4 to 5 deep. Bob Gunter explaining and UMass at Lowell students staring in wonder. ................
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