A collaborative program between the Department of Radiological Health Sciences at Colorado State University and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
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In January, 1992, NASA awarded a Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) in radiation health to consortium from the Department of Radiological Health Sciences and the Cell and Molecular Biology Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). One objective of this NSCORT program is to train young scientists who can address NASA's future concerns in radiation health. Funding for graudate students at both the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees is an integral component of the center.
Although the NSCORT program is fully integrated with participating faculty and principal investigators coming from both institutions, the formal teaching is provided by the Department of Radiological Health Sciences at Colorado State University, which also awards the degrees. The research will be conducted primarily at LBNL.
The center is supported under the Space Radiation Health Program conducted by the Life Sciences Division of NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications. The goal of that program is to develop the scientific basis for the protection of human crew members from space radiation, with particular emphasis on the requirements of future planetary explorations.
When extended missions are conducted in interplanetary space beyond the protection of the earth's magnetic field, astronauts will be exposed to ambient galactic radiations of types not usually encountered on earth, as well as showers of protons during brief periods of intense solar activity. Of particular interest for NSCORT research are the biological effects of the relativistic nuclei in the galactic radiation spectrum, which are known as heavy ions or HZE particles, and can be generated for ground-based experiments at particle accelerators in the U.S. as well as other countries.
The scope of the research program of the NSCORT in Radiation Health allows candidates for Ph.D. degrees to select a dissertation project in radiation physics; the radiation chemistry of DNA; DNA repair; radiation mutagenesis, cytogenetics, carcinogenesis, or cataractogenesis. A candidate for an M.S. degree will pursue a program of formal courses, prepare a written paper on a research topic, and also participate in a practicum at the LBNL.
Details of specific research programs that are currently supported are available on the NSCORT web page.
The Department of Radiological Health Sciences has a full-time faculty consisting of 17 members. The following are most directly involved with the NSCORT program.
Thomas
B. Borak, Professor (Radiological Health Sciences); Ph.D., Vanderbilt
1969. Radiation dosimetry; health physics; environmental and occupational
radiation safety.
Joel
S. Bedford, Professor (Radiological Health Sciences); Ph.D.
Oxford 1966. Cellular radiation biology; radiation genetics and cytogenetics.
Charles
A. Waldren, Professor (Radiological Health Sciences); Ph.D.
Colorado 1972. Somatic cell genetic, biochemical and molecular approaches
to mammalian cell toxicology.
The following faculty from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are also involved with the NSCORT program:
Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff, Tissue radiation biology
Eleanor Blakely, Cell radiation biology
Aloke Chatterjee, Track structure and theoretical radiation biology
Priscilla K. Cooper, Molecular and cell radiation biology
Amy Kronenberg, Molecular genetics
F. Ward Whicker, Chairman
Department of Radiological Health Sciences
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado 80523
Phone: (970) 491-5222
Fax: (970) 491-0623
email: Julie
Asmus
