We are soliciting the interest of students and faculty from academic institutions with defined programs in nuclear or radiological sciences, early career health physicists, and anyone else who is interested in the latest trends in the radiation protection field in attending/participating in an upcoming Northwest regional health physics meeting — Herbert M. Parker Symposium.

This symposium, entitled RADIATION PROTECTION - THE NEXT GENERATION, is designed to allow students and young professionals to hear from and interact with seasoned radiation protection professionals and prospective employers. We are inviting participants from a broad range of radiation protection disciplines including health physics, medical physics, nuclear engineering, and other related fields.

The Columbia Chapter of Health Physics Society (CCHPS), in conjunction with the Herbert M. Parker Foundation and American Nuclear Society Eastern Washington Section (ANS-EWS), are planning to hold the first Herbert M. Parker Symposium online. An in-person meeting that was planned in the past to take place in Richland, WA was cancelled due to continued uncertainties associated with COVID-19 pandemic and few other factors. All previously submitted registrations, abstracts, and scholarship applications are valid. If you have questions, email symposium@cchps.org

• Abstract Submission Closes — March 1, 2022

• Scholarship Application Closes — March 1, 2022

• Abstract Acceptance Notice — March 15, 2022

• Registration Closes — March 25, 2022

Registration

• There is no registration fee; however, we ask all our attendees, including presenters, to fill out a registration form

Student Support

Scholarship Opportunities

The Columbia Chapter of the Health Physics Society (CCHPS), the Eastern Washington Section of the American Nuclear Society (ANS-EWS), and Herbert M. Parker Foundation are proud to announce multiple scholarship opportunities for students enrolled in or seeking enrollment to a health physics or related educational program at an accredited institution.

This year, eight $2,000 scholarships are exclusively available to students presenting at the Herbert M. Parker symposium. To apply for any of the scholarships please fill out the application form and forward all necessary documents to the Scholarship Committee before the scholarship application deadline: January 18th, 2022.

Herbert M. Parker (1910-1984) was a British-American medical physicist. He worked at Chicago, Oak Ridge, and Hanford during the Manhattan Project, and is perhaps best known for inventing the rep (a precursor of the rad) and helping develop the rem to measure radiation dosage.

After earning an M.S. in Physics from the University of Manchester in 1931, Parker worked at Christie Hospital and the Holt Radium Institute in Manchester. Parker moved to Seattle, Washington in 1938, and led radiological physics at the Tumor Institute at the Swedish Hospital. In 1942, Parker joined the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago as a research associate. The following year, he was assigned to Oak Ridge, where he was responsible for starting the radiological safety program.

In July of 1944, at the suggestion of Manhattan District Medical director, Robert Stone (he was personally recommended by Arthur Holly Compton) he was asked to organize a radiation protection program in the Medical Department of the Hanford Engineering Works, then operated by the DuPont Company, later by the General Electric Company. Accordingly he headed a section in the Medical Department at Hanford known as Health Instruments and developed a radiation protection program at Hanford, which within a short time became a separate component, the Radiological Sciences Department.

Herbert Parker’s influence on radiation protection, Health Physics, was monumental in that much of the technology developed at Hanford was adopted world wide. He also personally contributed significantly to the development of radiation protection philosophy and standards, establishing the first maximum permissible concentration for airborne plutonium, as well as developing the concept of physical and biological doses as radiological quantities with their own individual units. Parker received numerous honors and awards for his accomplishments, including election to the National Academy of Engineering in 1978.