News Archive

David J. Allard, CHP, Committee Chair

The History Committee (HC) has been meeting via regular Zoom calls through 2023 and 2024. Many old Health Physics Society (HPS) meeting photos have been organized by Jim Willison and posted on the website. And we are also working on several In Memoriam write-ups of HPS members who have passed. A major task in coming months will be the review and update of posted HC materials for the new HPS website that is currently being designed. We want to ensure key HC materials and work products are maintained and available to members and (if appropriate) the public.

A good example of such materials are the video interviews with senior members. However, since the passing of our former HC chairperson (Ray Johnson), we continue to search for missing media (i.e., hard drives, tapes, and DVDs) containing dozens of interviews with senior members performed over some 20+ years. It is believed that Ray may have given these media to someone to digitize; however, we have no record of who that might be. If anyone knows where these materials are, please contact me.

Nonetheless, we have begun these interviews again and have posted two new ones—with Ruth McBurney and Ron Kathren. We would encourage Society members and all HPS chapters to review the posted interviews and consider performing an interview via zoom with an HPS senior member. These can be fun to do, and if you're interested, please contact me for the normal question set used and the contact at the Secretariat who can assist with the recording and posting.

The HC has also located digital versions of the FDA's Vignettes of Early Radiation Workers. There are two dozen fascinating interviews by Dr. Lauriston S. Taylor of early medical and health physicists done in the late 1970s. The video files are being reviewed for quality, and the hope is to have them posted in the next few months.

Lastly, we've recently contacted the University of Tennessee (UT) Knoxville, where the HPS archives are located. Given the past few pandemic years limited our access, we wanted to connect with the appropriate UT staff. It is our understanding that the Society's materials are being maintained; however, they are unable to take any additional papers from the HPS or chapters. This raises the question of how to preserve and make the materials available for use by members and scholars. Stay tuned as we work through this issue.

History Committee – http://hps.org/aboutthesociety/organization/committees/committee7.html

Pictorial History of the Health Physics Society – http://hps.org/meetings/pictorial-history.html, http://hps.org/meetings/myphotos/index.html

In Memoriam – http://hps.org/aboutthesociety/people/inmemoriam/

HPS History Committee Interviews – http://hps.org/media/hps_videos_history-committee-interviews.html

Health Physics Society's official archives at UT Knoxville – http://hps.org/aboutthesociety/historyandmission/utarchive.html