Professor X. George Xu Recognized for Leadership in Nuclear Engineering Research

Radiation Expert at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Appointed Member of EPA Science Advisory Board, Elected Fellow of American Nuclear Society

December 13, 2012

Radiation expert X. George Xu, head of the Nuclear Engineering Program

Radiation expert X. George Xu, head of the Nuclear Engineering Program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been appointed to serve on the Radiation Advisory Committee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board. In this three-year role, Xu will advise the EPA on national policies related to radiation protection and safety.

“Dr. Xu is an internationally recognized authority in the area of radiation dosimetry, so it is fitting the EPA Science Advisory Board would seek to appoint him to this critical advisory board to help inform national policies relating to radiation and nuclear safety,” said David Rosowsky, dean of the School of Engineering at Rensselaer. “The fields of nuclear medicine and radiation safety continue to evolve, and George’s deep knowledge of these and related topics will be of significant benefit to our nation’s lawmakers. George’s success and stature reflect brightly on the School of Engineering and the entire Institute.”

Xu was also recently elected a fellow of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and was additionally recognized with the Professional Excellence Award from the ANS Radiation Protection and Shielding Division.

In announcing Xu’s election as a fellow, ANS cited his “ground-breaking research and technical leadership in computational phantoms and Monte Carlo simulation methods for nuclear engineering, health physics, and medical physics problems that resulted in significant advancements in the field of radiation dosimetry and that impacted practices in radiation protection, imaging, and radiotherapy both nationally and internationally.”

When announcing the Professional Excellence Award, the ANS Radiation Protection and Shielding Division lauded Xu’s contributions as founder of the Consortium of Computational Human Phantoms (CCHP), his role as the co-editor and contributor to the Handbook of Anatomical Models for Radiation Dosimetry, and his success in publishing more than 100 full journal papers over the past 20 years on the topic of Monte Carlo calculations.

A professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, with a joint appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Xu conducts research in experimental and computational methods for measuring ionizing radiation involving the human body, environment, or nuclear systems. With his students in the Radiation Measurement and Dosimetry Group at Rensselaer, he has pioneered several computational methods for calculating radiation levels in the human body from nuclear power plants and medical imaging and therapeutic devices, toward the goal of ensuring radiation safety of nuclear workers and patients.

After receiving his doctorate from Texas A&M University, Xu joined the Rensselaer faculty in 1995. He was named associate professor in 2001 and a full professor in 2006. Since 1995, Xu has graduated 15 doctoral students and 10 master’s students. A prolific researcher, Xu is an author or coauthor of more than 140 peer-reviewed journal papers, 250 conference abstracts, and 90 invited seminars and plenary presentations. In his time at Rensselaer, he has secured nearly $15 million in research funding from the NSF, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Energy, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and from industry.

In 2005, Xu co-founded the international CCHP, playing a leading role in an emerging research field. Xu is a past president of Council on Radiation Measurements and Standards (CIRMS), an elected member of the National Council of Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP), and a fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM).

The Nuclear Engineering Program at Rensselaer is among the oldest in the nation, dating back to the late 1950s when the university received a grant to construct an electron accelerator. The university bestowed its first nuclear engineering doctoral degrees in 1962 and its first nuclear engineering bachelor’s degrees in 1967. Today, Rensselaer consistently ranks among the top nuclear engineering programs, and for several years graduated more nuclear engineering undergraduates than any other university in the United States. Currently, about 150 undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled in the Nuclear Engineering Program at Rensselaer.

For more information on Xu’s research and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer, visit:

 

Press Contact Michael Mullaney
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