On February 14th, the Texas A&M University Health Physics Society (HPS) Chapter held its annual spring meeting with the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Radiological Protection Division. The spring meeting traditionally serves as an opportunity for the LANL Radiological Protection Division to recruit undergraduate and graduate students for internships and full-time positions at the lab. The LANL staff members in attendance this year included Texas A&M nuclear engineering graduates RP Manager Dr. Jordan Douglas (’18) and Health Physicist Ryleigh Britton (’23).
According to Texas A&M HPS Chapter President, Jordan Hillis, “This event allowed current students to get direct insight into the potential work and expectations that can be seen within various LANL Radiological Protection groups. Approximately 30 students were in attendance to learn about their future opportunities and potential career paths with differing education aspirations.”
This year, the meeting featured a special appearance from John Bliss, the 1992 Texas A&M HPS Chapter President. Bliss presented the current chapter with the 1992 HPS South Texas Chapter Letter of Affiliation and a Texas A&M HPS Student Chapter spring information brochure from 1992.
“We are ecstatic about having these pieces of our history!” remarked Hillis, “We will be framing them for display in the nuclear engineering student lounge.”
Bliss earned his B.S. degree in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M in 1973 and his M.S. in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M in 1981. He now works at LANL as a senior health physicist.
“Mr. Bliss’s words of encouragement for student involvement within HPS motivated numerous students to become members of our organization the following week,” said Hillis. “This is an event that we fully anticipate will continue in the future where we can inspire students of their endless opportunities in the field of Health Physics and the networking they will do along the way.”
The mission of the Texas A&M HPS Chapter is to provide a university-wide community for faculty, staff, students, and alumni interested in supporting and promoting health physics opportunities and careers. It was revived last year after a long period of dormancy and is experiencing a lot of interest from students in the nuclear engineering department.