Society News Archive

21 June 2005

HPS Revises Position Statement on Human Capital Crisis

The Health Physics Society has recently revised its position statement "Human Capital Crisis in Radiation Safety." The position statement was originally issued in August 2001 in response to the termination of fellowship and research grant programs for health physics academic programs and the subsequent decline in academic programs and graduating students. At that time, there was not a citable source for health physics employment statistics and projections or for academic programs. In 2002 the Health Physics Society (HPS) established a task force to review the current and future needs for radiation protection professionals working in the energy, health, and security sectors. Results of the Task Force Report are available on the HPS website and have been published in the HPS newsletter Health Physics News (Nelson 2004). The newly revised position statement is based on the results of this report.