News Archive

Liz Brackett, HPS President, 2023–2025

The February 2023 issue of Health Physics News contains an article about the whimsical tradition of the Health Physics Society (HPS) rubber chicken, passed on from president to president-elect in anticipation of many chicken dinners during their tour of the HPS chapters. The president-elect visits and transfer of the chicken were impacted by COVID the last several years, but the tradition lives on. There have been a few transfers since those pictured in the article.

The most significant disruption of the ritual occurred in the transfer from Eric Goldin to then President-elect Dr. John Cardarelli. John took office in July of 2020, a year in which the annual meeting was entirely virtual. The passing of the chicken was postponed until the 2021 Annual Meeting in Phoenix, our first hybrid meeting. Being from Southern California, Eric and his wife Irene dressed him as a surfer dude in a Hawaiian shirt and swimsuit.

Eric Golden, left, passes the chicken to John Cardarelli, right, as Nolan Hertel looks on.
Submitted photo

John Cardarelli, right, passes the chicken to Liz Brackett.
Submitted photo

The chicken dressed up to be passed from Liz Brackett to Mike Lewandowski
Submitted photo

The next transfer was from John to me in 2022. We missed doing it at the annual meeting, so the chicken traveled to the Executive Committee (EC) retreat later in the year. He retained his beach outfit because we met in Navarre, Florida.

Family issues and the lingering effects of COVID restrictions limited the number of chapters I was able to visit in person but I'm happy to report that I had no rubber chicken in my travels. Dinner at two of the meetings (combined Greater New York/New Jersey chapters and Northern California) consisted of buffets with a variety of foods to choose from, and the East Tennessee Chapter had a morning meeting at which they served Dunkin' coffee and doughnuts. For a native New Englander, this was a perfect choice!

I passed the chicken on to President-elect Mike Lewandowski at the HPS/IRPA meeting in July 2024. Given the many virtual calls during my president-elect tenure and their continued use, he's dressed for a Zoom call—business on the top and jammies and bunny slippers on the bottom. The Dunkin' theme also carried over to his latest outfit—the EC teases me about my devotion to Dunkin' so I gave him his own cup. The pumpkin is from a misheard sentence (coincidentally also involving Dunkin') during an EC meeting. That's best left for a private conversation, but it had us laughing all day.