Dr.  Chary Rangacharyulu is a professor of Physics and Engineering Physics at the University of Saskatchewan with extensive research experience at electron, proton accelerators of MeV to GeV energies, photon beams of keV to GeV energies for his work in nuclear and particle physics.  More recently, he has been engaged in novel modalities of medical imaging and food irradiation. 

He continues to teach undergraduate and graduate students on diverse topics of physics and engineering physics. 

He authored a text book for multidisciplinary audiences:   Physics of Nuclear Radiations – Concepts, Techniques and Applications (Pub: Taylor and Francis, 2014).

Chary holds a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. He is an elected Fellow of American Physical Society for his science outreach. 

Dr. Eleodor Nichita is an associate professor in the Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science at Ontario Tech University and a former president of the Canadian Nuclear Society.  He holds a B.S. in Engineering Physics from the University of Bucharest, an M.S. in Medical Physics from McMaster University, and an M.S. in Health Physics and Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.  Prior to joining Ontario Tech, he worked in the reactor physics branch at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) in Sheridan Park.  His expertise covers computational physics, nuclear reactors, production and use of medical radionuclides, interaction of radiation with matter and general process modelling and simulation.  

Yevgenia Kravtsova is a Scientist in the Radioactive Materials and Chemistry Services Department. She joined Kinectrics in 2008 and since then has developed an extensive experience in the areas of radiochemical and source term characterizations. She holds a B. Sc. in Chemistry and Forensic Science, and a M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Toronto. Her expertise resides in radiochemical separation schemes and quantification of gamma-emitters, actinides and other difficult-to-detect radionuclides in various artefacts, effluents and environmental samples from CANDU power plants. In addition, Yevgenia was involved in the design, construction and launch of the Alpha Dosimetry Laboratory at Kinectrics, where she developed novel test methods for ultra-low-level measurements of transuranic radioisotopes in human bioassay samples using alpha spectrometry and high resolution ICP-MS. Recently, Yevgenia has been involved in various projects related to the outage activity transport monitoring and source term characterization for the Primary Heat Transport System in CANDU reactors.

Andrea Armstrong is a Research Scientist with the Nuclear Operations & Facilities unit at McMaster University. In this role, she leads the university’s radioisotope research and development programs. Past and current initiatives include the scale-up and translation of radioisotope production processes developed in-house; collaborations with industry to bring new medical isotope based technologies to the Canadian market; and providing radioisotopes, radiotracers, and expertise to support faculty-led research initiatives. Andrea also designed and teaches McMaster’s interdisciplinary Radioisotopes in Medicine course, which introduces undergraduates to the multifaceted field of medical isotope science. 

Andrea has over 15 years’ experience in radioisotope production, radiochemical separations, medical isotope device development, and early stage radiopharmaceutical research; she has previously held both NSERC Discovery and NSERC PDF grants. Prior to joining NO&F in 2009, she trained as a synthetic inorganic chemist, gaining expertise in p-block and organometallic chemistry. Andrea holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Calgary.

Dr. Karin Stephenson, McMaster University Nuclear Operations and Facilities

Dr. Karin Stephenson is the Manager of Commercial Operations for McMaster University’s Nuclear Operations and Facilities.  Karin has almost 20+ years of experience in medical isotopes and radiopharmaceutical development.  As the Manager of Commercial Operations, Karin is responsible for maintaining, developing and identifying business opportunities as well as R&D technology/products relevant to our customers and growth of the nuclear sciences field.  McMaster University has a unique suite of nuclear facilities to a University campus and its nuclear reactor is the world leader in the research and production of the medical isotopes including Iodine-125, treating over 200 patients per day globally.  Prior to coming the University, she was the Director of Discovery at the Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization.  In that role she was leading the research and discovery of new radiochemistry and radiopharmaceuticals with medical isotopes for applications in oncology and neurology research. 

Karin graduated with her PhD in Chemistry from McMaster University and completed post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health/University of Toronto.  She has numerous patents, papers published and has been awarded for her research.

Topic

Instructor

Hours of Instruction

Chary

The Physics of Radionuclide Production

Eleodor Nichita

1-2 hours

Radiation- Matter Interactions

Chary

1-2 hours

Radiopharmaceuticals: Production and Applications

Karin Stephanson 

1 hour

Infrastructure, factors affecting yields of Radio isotope production

Andrea Armstrong

1 hour 

Detection of Radionuclides in CANDU Systems and Samples

Yevgenia Kravtsova

1 hour

Radiation protection 

Chary

1 hour

Chary