Francis Marion University’s Jokisch named to prestigious scientific panel
FLORENCE – Dr. Derek Jokisch’s interest in an obscure corner of the world of radiation dosimetry has earned him a place on a prestigious government panel and a unique trip to Russia to assist a group of international scientists studying the long-term health effects of radiation on humans.
Jokisch, professor of Physics and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Francis Marion University, was recently named a member of the U.S. DOE’s Scientific Review Group for the Russian Health Studies Program.
Jokisch joins a group of six U.S. scientists — two from the University of Washington, one from Georgia Tech, one from Tufts and one from the Department of Energy — on the SRG. The U.S. SRG, and its counterparts on the Russian SRG, review the work of scientists involved in the Russian Health Studies Program.
The Russian Health Studies Program is a multi-decade initiative in which scientists are studying the long-term health effects of a large population group in and round the region near the former Russian nuclear weapons production site at Mayak. Mayak is in south central Russia, near the city of Chelyabinsk. From 1948-67, hundreds of thousands of Russians were exposed to significant doses of radiation released at Mayak through what the DOE has termed accidents and poor safety procedures.
The large population group offers researchers a unique data set for determining the health effects of radiation exposure. Scientists have been measuring the amount of radiation in individuals in the exposed population for more than 20 years. Epidemiologists have been cataloging the medical conditions of the population.
Jokisch’s involvement with the Russian Health Studies program stems from his position as one of just a handful of experts worldwide in the field of skeletal dosimetry. Jokisch became interested in the field while working on his post-graduate degrees at the University of Florida. At UF, he worked under the tutelage of Dr. Wesley Bolch, a pioneer in the field.
Jokisch was asked to assist the SRG and the Russian Health Studies Program last summer after researchers hit a roadblock related to the effects of a particular radioactive isotope, Strontium-90, on humans. Strontium is absorbed mostly into the bone and its short-range electrons emit radiation primarily to bone marrow. Researchers were struggling to determine the dose delivered by the Strontium in the bone to the bone marrow.
Jokisch’s first task was to produce an independent review of the work on the dose calculation. After presenting that review to the U.S. SRG last fall, Jokisch was asked to travel to Russia to brief the Russian SRG and project scientists on his suggestions for calculation methodology. He was also asked to join the SRG.
“Skeletal dosimetry is my thing,” says Jokisch. “That was my PhD research, and it’s something I’ve continued to study. There aren’t a bunch of us out there who do this. I knew someone on the SRG (it’s chair, Dr. Nolan Hertel of Georgia Tech) and when this came up, he said, ‘hey, I know a guy …’ And here I am.
“It’s humbling,” says Jokisch. “But it’s also very exciting and very rewarding to see work that I’ve done for years start to make its way into applications all over the world. … To see it manifest itself in real work in a global sense, that’s something you dream of.”
Jokisch called his 10-day trip to Chelyabinsk in March “enlightening.” He met with Russian and American scientists, including some of the top epidemiologists and dosimetrists in the world.
“It’s important to travel, to continue to be involved in your field,” says Jokisch. “It makes you better as a researcher, and in the classroom. You never really know where it will lead, but seeking more knowledge, more involvement, always leads somewhere. Usually, that’s somewhere good.”
Jokisch, a native of Carlinville, Illinois, has been at FMU since 1999. He is an FMU Board of Trustees Research Scholar, a winner of the university’s Distinguished Professor medal, and holds a joint faculty appointment at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn. He specializes in Health Physics in the classroom at FMU. He became head of the Physics Department last year.
For more information, contact Matt McColl, Francis Marion University’s director of media relations at mmccoll@fmarion.edu or 843.611.1227.