The Dunster Lecture Series was launched by the Society in 2011 to honour the memory of John Dunster.
Colin Martin’s PhD from Birmingham University was in the physics of solids, and he moved into Medical Physics by joining the Aberdeen University Bio-medical Physics and Bio-engineering Department in 1976. He worked as a hospital-based Medical Physicist in Scotland for 38 years. He spent the first few years in Aberdeen working in ultrasound before moving into Radiation Protection in 1983 and became Head of the Health Physics Service in Glasgow in 1995. He retired from the UK NHS in 2013 and joined the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Committee 3 (Protection in Medicine) in the same year, of which he has been Vice-Chair for the last 6 years. He has been involved in the preparation of four ICRP Publications and is currently chairing ICRP Task Groups on ‘Optimisation in Digital Radiology’ and ‘Imaging in Radiotherapy’, and is a member of two other ICRP Task Groups. Colin is an honorary senior lecturer in the University of Glasgow, he has been a member of various IAEA committees, UK and EU working parties, and COMARE, which advises the UK government on medical uses of radiation, and has taken part in a number of IAEA missions to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe to provide training and advice on radiological protection and medical physics aspects of radiology techniques.
Colin’s research interests include radiation protection, diagnostic radiology physics, radiation dosimetry, and non-ionising radiation physics. He has co-authored/edited several textbooks on radiation protection, written over 300 articles including 170 peer reviewed papers in scientific journals. He has given over a hundred invited presentations at conferences for a variety of organisations throughout the world, including many online lectures during the COVID-19 period and beyond. Colin was awarded the SRP Founder’s medal in 2003, the BIR Barclay Prize in 2006, and was awarded the IPEM healthcare gold medal in 2018. Colin became an honorary fellow of SRP in 2015 and is a fellow of IOP and IPEM. He is a member of Editorial Boards for the Journal of Radiological Protection and Radiation Protection Dosimetry.
John Boice is Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is Past President of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) (2012 to 2018) and currently the Director of Science. Dr. Boice is an international authority on radiation effects and served on the Main Commission of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) for 20 y and as a U.S. advisor to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) for 25 y. During 27 y in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), he developed and became the first chief of the Radiation Epidemiology Branch at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). His seminal discoveries and over 500 publications have been used to formulate public health measures to prevent radiation associated diseases. Boice has a bachelor’s degree in Physics from University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP); a master’s in Nuclear Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; a master’s in Medical Physics from Harvard; and a doctoral degree in Epidemiology from Harvard. He received the Harvard School of Public Health Alumni Award of Merit; the EO Lawrence Award from the Department of Energy; the Gorgas Medal from the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States; the outstanding alumnus award from UTEP; the Distinguished Service Medal from the USPHS; and recently the NCI Director's Award in 2021. The "John D Boice Jr Young Investigator Award" was established by NCRP in 2019 to recognize early career professionals. He currently serves on the Steering Committees for the Image Gently Alliance and for the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. He directs the Million Person Study of Low Dose Radiation Health Effect.
Professor Mike Wood holds the Chair in Applied Ecology at the University of Salford. He gained his BSc (Hons) in Zoology in 1998 from the University of Liverpool and then spent a year working as a fruit machine installation engineer to save up enough money to pay for his MSc studies at the University of Manchester. In 2000, Mike began his career in radiation protection at the University of Liverpool – first as an environmental consultant and then as an academic. He has spent the last two decades working on the development of the international environmental radiation protection system and conducting underpinning radioecological research. During his time at Liverpool, Mike also completed a PhD in radioecology.
Mike is a Chartered Radiation Protection Professional, SRP Council member and Editorial Board member for the Journal of Radiological Protection. He has been an invited expert for various International Atomic Energy Agency and European Commission activities in the areas of radiation protection and risk communication. Mike’s research in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has received extensive media coverage and he has developed various innovative approaches to public engagement and education, including Virtual Chernobyl. His contributions to radioecology and radiation protection have been recognised through prestigious awards, including the Times Higher Education Research Award (2016) and The Society for Radiological Protection’s Founders’ Medal (2018).
Dr. Cousins studied medicine at the University of Nottingham, UK and graduated with a Bachelor of Medical Sciences, 1st Class in 1982 and Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery with Distinction in Paediatrics in 1984. She trained in radiology in Nottingham and at the Hammersmith Hospital, London, specialising in interventional radiology. After six years as a Consultant at the Hammersmith, she moved to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, in 1999. From 2008, she was the Lead Vascular and Interventional Radiologist of this very busy unit, retiring in March 2016.
Dr. Cousins joined ICRP in 2001. She was appointed Chairwoman of this Committee from 2006-2009, was elected Chair of the Main Commission in 2009 and re-elected Chair in both 2013 and 2017.
Dr. Cousins was a member of the British Institute of Radiology Radiation Protection Committee from 2006-2015, being Secretary of this Committee from 2011. She was the Programme Director for Radiology Training in Cambridge from 2001-2005. She was a member of the Clinical Senate for East of England, acting as an expert adviser, and also the lead interventional radiologist for Specialist Commissioning in the region. Dr. Cousins still acts as an expert for health service provision in different regions of the UK and remains a reviewer for radiology journals.
2019 - Claire Cousins from Harris Associates on Vimeo.
2018 - Roger Clarke CBE: 'The Evolution of the Recommendations of ICRP since 1928'
Roger Clarke began his research career in Reactor Physics in 1965 working for the Central Electricity Generating Board, transferring in 1969 to Health Physics where he worked for Bernard Wheatley (a former SRP President and first Editor of JRP). He moved to the National Radiological Protection Board in 1978, succeeding John Dunster as its Director from 1987 until 2003. Roger is an Emeritus member of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, having been its Chair from 1993 to 2005. He has been the UK representative to UNSCEAR, a member of the Article 31 Group of Experts for the European Commission, Chair of the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) and a member of several UK Advisory Committees.
2017 - Richard Wakeford: 'What do we know about low-level radiation risks?'
Richard Wakeford has been Editor of the Journal of Radiological Protection since 1997 and is an SRP Honorary Fellow. He received BSc and PhD degrees from the University of Liverpool and then joined British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL). Richard took early retirement from BNFL in 2006 and is now Professor in Epidemiology at the University of Manchester. He is a member of a number of national and international expert committees, including Committee 1 of ICRP and the UK delegation to UNSCEAR.
2016 - Pete Burgess: 'RP in 50 Years - Very Fallible Predictions'
Pete Burgess started work in the Health Physics Instruments Group of NRPB in 1975. He moved from there to UKAEA in 2002, mostly because it was a great opportunity to broaden the area of work. He stayed there for 4 years, happily helping people at Dounreay, Harwell and Winfrith demolish the sites efficiently while staying within the legal obligations. He then moved to NPL, which was very different. His main influence at NPL was to encourage the staff to look at the point of application of the standards and to consider how best they could help those at the point of application. After 2 years, he moved to Nuvia, for the first time working for a genuinely commercial organisation. That in itself was a major challenge but it led to an involvement in the heavier engineering aspects of dealing with ionising radiation. It is interesting how different engineers and scientists views can be. Then he was tempted away by a very good offer into private consultancy, which has given tremendous freedom.
This breadth of work, and the range of organisations worked with – SRP, AURPO, IAEA, HSE, EA, NII, ONR, BNFL, AWE, universities and a whole host of commercial companies, particularly the wonderful Mini Instruments Ltd – has been great fun. But even more it’s been the people.
2015 - Roger Coates: 'A Journey Towards Radiation Protection Culture'
Roger Coates is an Honorary Fellow and former President of the Society. He worked for 30 years in the nuclear industry with BNFL, with responsibilities encompassing radiation protection, nuclear safety, conventional safety and environmental issues, retiring as Director of Environment, Health and Safety. He then spent 18 months with IAEA in Vienna.
Roger has extensive radiological protection experience across the whole field of operations, environment and the underpinning standards and science. He was a Member of the ICRP Task Group on Occupational Exposure and a co-author of the resulting ICRP Publication 75. He was the Founder Chairman of the World Nuclear Association’s Radiological Protection Working Group.
Roger is spending a very active semi-retirement. He is President of the International Radiation Protection Association and was Congress President for the IRPA13 Glasgow Congress in 2012. He is also a Non-Executive Director of LLW Repository Ltd, as well as being adviser to several UK nuclear organisations He is involved with IAEA as a consultant on the Iraq Decommissioning Project and the Nuclear Law Institute.
2014 - John Croft: 'ALARA, RP Culutre and More: Joining-up the Dots and the People'
John Croft is an Honorary Fellow and a former president of SRP. For his entire career he worked for the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB); its predecessor, the Radiological Protection Service and its successor, the Health Protection Agency (HPA). He has experience of many aspects of radiation protection, including RPA work, the development of national and international standards, the safety and security of radioactive sources, together with emergency preparedness and response. Of particular relevance to his presentation he was heavily involved over several decades with the development, understanding and practical implementation of ALARA.
He has acted as consultant to a number of international organisations including, the European Commission, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). He has led a number of IAEA missions to investigate major radiation accidents in Brazil, El Salvador, Belarus, Israel and Bolivia.
When, in 2003, NRPB became part of the newly formed HPA, he became the Head of Emergency Response, with the responsibility to develop coherent emergency response arrangements that covered not just radiological incidents, but all public health emergencies; including CBRN attacks, chemical incidents and infectious diseases outbreaks. He was heavily involved in the response to the London Polonium Incident in 2006. He retired from HPA in 2007, but continues to be active in work for SRP.
2013 - Roger Cox: 'Scientific Support to the Central Estimates of Low Dose Radiation Risk: Notable Developments 1990-2010'
Roger Cox is a former Director of PHE’s Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards and a member of the Board where his responsibilities included dealing with emergencies such as the fire at the Buncefield Oil Refinery and the aftermath of the death of Alexander Litvinenko in London from Polonium-210 poisoning. He has also been Vice Chair of the ICRP Main Commission (2005-2009) and Chairman of ICRP Committee 1 on Radiation Effects. He is a former Head of the UK Delegation to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) and an Honorary Fellow of SRP.
2012 - Peter Marsden: 'The Importance of Radiation to the Medical Profession'
Peter Marsden is a Medical Physicist with many years experience working in the NHS in the field of Radiation Protection. He is currently Head of Medical Physics at University College Hospital in London. Peter represents the South East of England on the Small Users Liaison Group and is also a member of COMARE, the DH advisory Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment, and the National Dose Assessment Working Group.
2011 (Recorded in 2013) - Jack Valentin
Jack Valentin obtained his PhD in genetics from the University of Stockholm. In 1983, he joined the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority, rising to Deputy Director supervising nuclear installations. From 1997 until his retirement at the end of 2008, he was the Scientific Secretary of ICRP. A former IRPA Executive Council member, Jack has had assignments for UNSCEAR, IAEA and OECD/NEA and was Chairman of the Programme Committee for the IRPA14 World Congress in South Africa. He is extremely proud to be an Honorary Fellow of SRP and to have been the Society’s inaugural John Dunster lecturer in 2011.