Vision For 2020

Dr. Keith Eckerman, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been selected to receive the 2012 Gold Medal of the Swedish Academy.  The award is to be made at the concluding session of IRPA 13 on Friday, May 18 in recognition of his long standing contributions to internal dosimetry.

Dr. Keith Eckerman received his undergraduate degree in mathematics and chemistry from University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 1962. He undertook an M.S. degree program at the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (Oak Ridge, TN), and while in Oak Ridge he became interested in health physics as a career choice. He obtained a Ph.D. in radiologic physics from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) in 1972. From 1972 to 1974 he was a staff member at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and from 1974 to1978 he served as senior radiological physicist with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington, DC. In 1979 he became group leader of the Dosimetry Research Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where he has been for past three decades.

Dr. Eckerman’s interest in the dosimetry of internal emitters began in 1970 when he was involved in the studies of radium dial painters. He has been an active member of Committee 2 of ICRP since 1984 and has chaired the ICRP Task Group on Dose Calculations from 1984 to 2007. During this period, the role of age and gender on dose from intakes of radionuclides was a major focus of ICRP Committee 2. Dr. Eckerman is a distinguished emeritus member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement. He received the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award from the Health Physics Society in 1995 and the Loevinger-Berman Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine in 2001.

IRPA is pleased to announce that, for the first time at an IRPA Congress, three important sessions will be webcast live from the IRPA13 Glasgow Congress, enabling audiences around the world to join the presentations and discussions.

The three sessions are:

(1) Key Issue Discussion Session on Nuclear Issues, to be held on Thursday 17 May at 14:00 hrs UK Summer Time (13:00 hrs GMT). This session, sponsored by the US Nuclear Energy Institute, will present an overview of the key radiation protection issues currently facing the nuclear industry, followed by questions and discussion with the prestigious speakers. The session will last for one hour 30 minutes.

(2) Plenary Session and Key Issues Discussion on the System of Protection, to be held shortly following (1) above at 16:00 hrs UK Summer Time (15:00 hrs GMT) on the Thursday, lasting for 2 hours 15 minutes. This will feature key international organisations involved in the system of protection (ICRP, UNSCEAR, IAEA and NEA), together with input from representatives of the ‘user’ communities based on regional and sectoral (eg medical, nuclear, NORM) considerations.

(3) Plenary Session on the Lessons and Challenges following the Fukushima Accident, on Friday 18th May at 09:00 hrs UK Summer Time (08:00 hrs GMT). This will last for 2 hours 15 minutes. Senior international figures will identify and discuss the key challenges for Japan, other countries, utilities and ICRP, together with an NGO perspective.

Registration to participate in any of these webcasts is open to all interested parties, either as individuals or groups. To secure involvement you must register with the IRPA13 organisers at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You will be given the web address and registration code to allow participation. There is no charge for participation, but registration will be on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.

IRPA13 are proud to announce the launch of the exclusive Congress tartan.

The 13th International Radiation Protection Association Congress (IRPA13) is to be held in Glasgow from 13th to 18th May 2012. To mark this occasion, the IRPA13 International Congress Organising Committee have worked with Ingles Buchan to design a celebratory tartan based on the 1990 Glasgow City of Culture tartan which uses the corporate colours of the 2012 Congress plus a white on blue representing the Saltire – the national flag of the host country, Scotland.

13th International Radiation Protection Association Congress Tartan

Pre-Congress sales are available and if ordered now will be available for collection onsite at the Congress. The items that will be available for all to purchase are as follows:
Tartan Tie £13.99 incl. VAT
Tartan Lambswool Scarf £17.99 incl. VAT
Tartan Tam    £16.99 incl. VAT
Tartan Cufflinks    £13.99 incl. VAT

These items are subject to availability and minimum order requirements being reached.

To register for the Congress and order your souvenir and/or gift at the same time please click here. Or, if you have already registered please email your order to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The IRPA13 website is full of useful information. In the not-to-distant future the full schedule for the meeting will be on the web, as will a custom-built tool to allow you to plan your visit to this extraordinarily rich meeting by identifying the papers you must see (via a key-word search) and adding them to your personalized schedule. This and other digital features that we are planning should allow you to JUSTIFY your participation, to OPTIMISE your visit to be ALARA (As Luminating As Reasonably Achievable), and to LIMIT wasted time (noting that what free time you may schedule can be easily filled with technical visits and a wee dram of fine single-malt Scotch if you insist!).

The plenary sessions are certainly among the high points of the technical programme. Following tradition, the Congress will begin with the Sievert Lecture, this year being given by Dr. Richard Osborne, who will provide an historical overview of the evolution of radiobiology and the system of radiological protection through the lens of his research on radiological aspects of tritium. This will be followed by a plenary session on state-of-the-art radiological protection science, including presentations on radiation biology, epidemiology and the status of low-dose research for ionising radiation, and a complete presentation of the science of radiological protection for non-ionising radiation.

The theme of the IRPA13 Congress is “Living with Radiation, Engaging with Society”, and as such the Tuesday plenary session will be on engaging with society. Four speakers will discuss social science and risk communication, building trust, stakeholder engagement issues from Fukushima, and stakeholder engagement experience. Following this theme, on Wednesday afternoon there will be a public lecture on radiation protection, aimed at school children.

On Thursday, we will switch to more policy-level discussions, with a plenary session on the evolution of the system of radiological protection that will include overview presentations on where we are going from UNSCEAR, ICRP, and IAEA, and be followed by regional (Europe, South America, Asia) and sector specific (nuclear industry, medical, other industry) presentations on future challenges. On Friday, the final technical plenary will address the lessons learned and future challenges emerging from the Fukushima accident. Speakers with a range of perspectives will present their views; from Japan, from the ICRP, from nuclear regulatory authorities, from the nuclear industry, and from an NGO.

Roger Coates
IRPA Vice President for Congress Affairs