Dr. Nolan Hertel, professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering (ME), has been selected to chair the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) Report Committee on Operational Radiation Protection Quantities for External Radiation.

Dr. Hertel and his committee will produce a report that will generally form the basis for how things are done by radiation professionals, particularly in radiation protection of individuals.  Over approximately the next three years, the committee will review the current operational quantities, their use, and relationship to recent changes in production quantities.  The end result will be a new ICRU report that addresses needed changes in operational quantity concepts and definition. In particular, the commission will look at radiation quantities that relate to the “risk” of exposure taking into account humans as receptors, the different radiation sensitivities of various organs and tissues, and the differences in radiation qualities. 

The mission of the ICRU is to “develop and promulgate internally accepted recommendations on radiation related quantities and units, terminology, measurement procedures, and reference data for the safe and efficient application of ionizing radiation to medical diagnosis and therapy, radiation science and technology, and radiation protection of individuals and populations.”  Dr. Hertel is also a member of the International Commission on Radiological Protection’s (ICRP) Task Group on Dose Calculations, where he is helps produce publications recommending various dose computations.