[ RadSafe ] FW: Acadlemic Program Support Status

[Marcel Schouwenburg]

Posted on behalf of Michael Stabin.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I removed the attachments from this email. The additional information 
that Keith refers to can be found online for those interested. Those of 
you with academic aspirations take note. If you obtain an award, think 
of Vanderbilt University as a place to pursue your MS or PhD with a 
Health Physics Emphasis. See a description of our program at:
 
http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/physics/graduate/healthphysmasters
 
I am pleased of course to see the uptick in HP fellowship funding and 
wish all awardees great success, wherever they choose to pursue their 
education. Please forward to your colleagues and friends who may be 
interested, thanks.
 
Mike

Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP
Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences
Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences
Vanderbilt University
1161 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37232-2675
Phone (615) 343-0068
Fax   (615) 322-3764
Pager (615) 835-5153
e-mail     michael.g.stabin at vanderbilt.edu
internet   www.doseinfo-radar.com

Mark

I thought I'd give a quick status, as I understand it, of academic 
program funding in the 109th Congress and the FY 06 budget with a 
request that you forward this to the Academic Program Directors/Academic 
Education Committee members if you find it useful.

APPROPRIATIONS FY06

The President's FY 06 budget is in Congress and going through the 
appropriations process. In March, DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, Science 
and Technology (NE) Director Bill Magwood testified before the Senate 
and House Appropriations Committees on the FY06 Budget for his office. 
His testimony contained specific mention of the health physics academic 
programs and his continuing effort to gradually fund them in order to 
provide an adequate number of health physicists in the future. I have 
extracted the opening paragraph and the paragraph dealing with health 
physics programs from Mr. Magwood's testimony to the Senate and have 
attached it for your information. The complete testimony can be found on 
the DOE NE Web site>From the Director>Congressional testimony 
<http://www.ne.doe.gov/admin/MagwoodFY%202006%20Appropriations%20HearingSenate.pdf>.

In addition, our Washington Representative, David Connolly, has been in 
touch with John Gutteridge and understands that NE plans on increasing 
the FY05 allocation of $200K for HP Fellowships by a small amount just 
under another $200K.

President Guilmette will be sending Director Magwood a "Thank You" for 
his testimony.

AUTHORIZATIONS 109TH CONGRESS

All the academic program support activity in the 109th has occurred in 
the House, to date.

The Energy & Commerce Committee has just marked up the Comprehensive 
Energy Bill, the Energy Act of 2005, and sent it to the House floor. It 
is not yet available on the Web. However, the Committee did have a 
"Printed Committee Report" version that they used to mark up and thus 
create the bill. I have extracted for your information the Table of 
Contents and Title IX Section 927 of the bill, University Nuclear 
Science and Engineering Support. You will notice that "health physics" 
is specifically identified as a nuclear science subject to the 
authorizations in this section for fellowship and faculty assistance 
programs. The entire bill should be available shortly and is scheduled 
for House action this week (April 20 - 21).

In addition, Congresswoman Biggert has introduced H.R.610, the "Energy 
Research, Development, Demonstration, and Commercial Application Act of 
2005" which contains in Section 512 provisions for nuclear sciences 
fellowships, faculty support programs, and research programs. The bill 
specifies health physics as one of the sciences subject to authorization 
for each of the programs it includes. Note that the research programs 
are through a "nuclear engineering and education research program", 
which appears the research will be through NEER. As you know, DOE NE 
included health physics as an applicable discipline in NEER this past 
year. I have attached an extract of the Table of Contents and Section 
512 for your information. A link to the complete bill can be found in 
the HPS Members Only site>Legislative Action Center>Current Legislation 
<http://congress.nw.dc.us/hps/issues/bills/>.

I hope this summary is useful and helpful. I will continue to keep you 
up to date as things continue to develop through the Government 
Relations Program.

With Best Wishes

Keith

Keith H. Dinger, CHP
Health Physics Society
Governmental Relations Liaison
23 Prospect Street
Somersworth, NH
Tel: 603-692-4270
Fax: 603-692-3760
govtliaison at hps.org <mailto:govtliaison at hps.org>
keith.dinger at verizon.net <mailto:keith.dinger at verizon.net>
(See attached file: MagwoodTestimony03-05.Extract.pdf)(See attached 
file: EnergyAct2005.Sec927.pdf)(See attached file: HR610Sec512.pdf)