Kathryn Higley of the Oregon State University College of Engineering has been chosen as the next president of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.

The NCRP, chartered by Congress in 1964, has been active in radiation protection since it was first established as the Advisory Committee on X-Ray and Radium Protection in 1929.

It provides independent, consensus-based scientific analysis, information and recommendations from leading scientists. 

Higley’s term as the seventh president of the council begins March 26, 2024. She was elected to the council in 2014 and appointed to the board of directors in 2023.

Higley is an OSU distinguished professor of nuclear science and engineering and the interim director of the university’s Center for Quantitative Life Sciences. She was head of the School of Nuclear Science and Engineering at Oregon State for more than a decade.

Higley holds a doctorate and master’s degree in radiological health sciences from Colorado State University and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Reed College.

She began her career as a radioecologist for Portland General Electric, later worked for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a senior research scientist in environmental health physics and has been at Oregon State University since 1994, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in radioecology, dosimetry, radiation protection, radiochemistry and radiation biology.

November 06, 2023