Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board

Member Bios

April 2016

ROBERT C. DYNES, CHAIR

Robert C. Dynes, Ph.D., (NAS) was the 18th president of the University of California (UC) and is now a professor of physics at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, where he directs a laboratory that focuses on superconductivity. Dr. Dynes served as chancellor of UC San Diego from 1996 to 2003 after six years in the physics department, where he founded an interdisciplinary laboratory in which chemists, electrical engineers, and private industry researchers investigated the properties of metals, semiconductors, and superconductors. Prior to joining the UC faculty, he had a 22-year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, where he served as department head of semiconductor and material physics research and director of chemical physics research. Dr. Dynes received the 1990 Fritz London Award in Low Temperature Physics, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989, and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He serves on the executive committee of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness. A native of London, Ontario, Canada, and a naturalized U.S. citizen, Dr. Dynes holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics and an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Western Ontario, and master's and doctorate degrees in physics and an honorary doctor of science degree from McMaster University. He also holds an honorary doctorate from L’Université de Montréal.

James A. Brink, VICE-CHAIR

James A. Brink, MD, is chief of radiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Juan M. Taveras Professor of Radiology at the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Brink has expertise and broad experience in medical imaging, including utilization and management of imaging resources and monitoring and control of medical radiation exposure. Before joining MGH, Dr. Brink was an associate professor at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine and professor and chair of the Yale Department of Diagnostic Radiology. He is a fellow of the Society for Computed Body Tomography/Magnetic Resonance, past-president of the American Roentgen Ray Society, fellow and chair (effective May 17, 2016) of the Board of Chancellors of the American College of Radiology, and scientific vice-president and member of the Board of Directors of the National Council for Radiation Protection and Measurements. He earned his M.D. degree at Indiana University and completed his medical residency and fellowship at MGH.

George Apostolakis (NAE)

Dr. George Apostolakis is a professor emeritus of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department and of the Engineering Systems Division of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served as a Commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from April 23, 2010 until June 30, 2014. From 1995 until 2010, he was a member and Chairman (2001-2002) of the statutory Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards of the NRC. He is currently the Head of the Nuclear Risk Research Center in Japan. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society and the Society for Risk Analysis. He is the recipient of the Tommy Thompson Award and the Arthur Holly Compton Award from the American Nuclear Society, and of the Henry DeWolf Smyth Nuclear Statesman Award from the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute. He is a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens and a member of the International Nuclear Energy Academy. His interests include methods for probabilistic risk assessment of nuclear power plants and nuclear waste repositories; uncertainty analysis; nuclear reactor safety; fire risk assessment; risk-informed and performance-based regulation; and risk management. Dr. Apostolakis holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Science and Applied Mathematics (1973) and a Master of Science degree in Engineering Science (1970) from the California Institute of Technology. He earned his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University in Athens, Greece, in 1969.

DAVID J. BRENNER

David J. Brenner, Ph.D., is the Higgins Professor of Radiation Physics at Columbia University, as well as director of the Center for Radiological Research, director of the Radiological Research Accelerator Facility, and principal investigator of the Center for High-Throughput Minimally-Invasive Radiation Biodosimetry. His research focuses on developing mechanistic models for the effects of ionizing radiation on living systems, both at the chromosomal and the animal (or human) levels. He studies the effects of high doses of ionizing radiation (relating to radiation therapy) and the effects of low doses of radiation (relating to medical, environmental, and occupational exposures) on humans. In the field of medical imaging, he has focused on the risk/benefit balance of the higher-dose imaging techniques, particularly computed tomography (CT). In the field of radiotherapy, he has focused on optimizing fractionation schemes for different tumor types, to maximize tumor killing and minimize serious side effects; this includes modeling the mechanisms of radiotherapy-induced second cancers with the goal of reducing second cancer risks. Dr. Brenner is the author of two books on radiation for the lay person: "Making the Radiation Therapy Decision" and "Radon, Risk and Remedy." Additionally, he has published more than 200 papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. He was the recipient of the 1991 Radiation Research Society Annual Research Award and the 1992 NCRP Award for Radiation Protection in Medicine. He received his Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Surrey (UK) and holds an honorary D.Sc. degree from Oxford University. He was a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on Health Risks of Exposure to Radon (BEIR VI) - Phase II and has served as a co-organizer and/or participant in the NRSB’s Gilbert W. Beebe Symposium on radiation health effects.

Margaret S.Y. Chu

Margaret S.Y. Chu, Ph.D., is the managing director of M. S. Chu + Associates LLC, a consulting service to domestic and international clients in nuclear waste management, nuclear fuel cycle analysis, nuclear security analysis, and research and development. Her entire career has been devoted to promoting safe nuclear energy and nuclear fuel cycle. She has extensive experience in successfully managing large, multidisciplinary projects and in negotiating with customers, regulators and stakeholders. She has over 20 years experience serving at Sandia National Laboratories serving in several capacities, including Director of the Nuclear Waste Management Program Center, Manager of the Environmental Risk Assessment and Waste Management Department, and Deputy Manager of the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) and Technical Integration Department. In 2002, she was appointed by President George W. Bush as director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, which is responsible for developing the nation’s waste disposal system for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. She has authored nearly 50 publications and has received numerous awards, including in 2005 the Secretary of Energy’s Gold Award, the Department of Energy’s highest honor, and Team Lead of the Lockheed Martin Nova Award (1998). She holds a B.S. degree from Purdue University in chemistry and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in physical (quantum) chemistry.

Tissa H. Illangasekare

Tissa H. Illangasekare, Ph.D., presently holds the AMAX Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado School of Mines and is also the founding Director of the University/Industry/National Laboratory collaborative Center for the Experimental Study of Subsurface Environmental Processes ( He has more than 35 years of research and academic experience. His research interests are in numerical modeling of saturated and unsaturated flow in porous media, surface-subsurface interaction, arid-zone hydrology, integrated modeling of hydrologic systems, flow in snow and arctic hydrology, subsurface chemical transport and multiphase flow, environmental impacts of energy development, buried threat detection, sensor technologies for environmental monitoring, CO2 sequestration, and land-atmospheric interaction modeling. He has served on four NRC panels, two of which were under this Board. He also has conducted research at DOE's Rocky Flats that contributed to its closure efforts. He has published many book chapters and close to 280 technical articles in journals and proceedings. He is a Board Certified Environmental Engineer (BCEE) and a Diplomate of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers (DWRE). He received an Honorary Doctorate in Natural Science and Technology from the University of Uppsala in Sweden in 2010 and is the recipient of European Geosciences Society’s 2012 Henry Darcy Medal given in recognition of outstanding scientific contributions in water resources research and water resources engineering and management. He was t he recipient of the American Geophysical Union’s 2015 Langbein Lecture award in recognition of life time contribution to hydrologic sciences. He is also Fellow of American Geophysical Union, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Association for Advancement of Science, and Soil Science Society of America. He is the 2017-2018 President-elect of International Porous Media Society.

CAROL M. JANTZEN

Carol M. Jantzen, Ph.D., is a consulting scientist with the Savannah River National Laboratory. Her research spans vitreous, crystalline ceramic, mineral, and cementitious waste form development, processing, and characterization in both the U.S. and Europe. She has also developed waste form durability tests, techniques, and standards for the stabilization of high level, hazardous, and mixed (radioactive and hazardous) wastes, including mining wastes. In 2008 she won the Wendell Weart Lifetime Achievement Award in nuclear waste management for more than three decades of outstanding contributions to nuclear waste management. She is a fellow, past president, and distinguished life member of the American Ceramic Society. Dr. Jantzen received a Ph.D. degree in materials science and engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with a specialization in glass chemistry, glass decomposition mechanisms, and glass durability. Her postdoctoral research was in cement stabilization of U.S. and U.K. wastes in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Dr. Jantzen served on the Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Astronomy and was a member of the NRSB’s Committee on Waste Forms Technology and Performance.

MARTHA S. LINET

Martha Linet, a physician epidemiologist, served as Chief of the Radiation Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute from 2002–2014. She joined NCI in 1987, and was previously an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr. Linet led the collaborative NCI-Children’s Oncology Group case-control study of extremely low-frequency residential magnetic fields and other environmental exposures and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and was co-principal investigator of the multi-center NCI case-control study of cellular telephones and other risk factors for adult brain tumors. She is the long-standing Principal Investigator of the study of cancer and other radiation-related disease risks in U.S. radiologic technologists and the Co-Principal Investigator of the study of cancer risks in Chinese benzene workers. Dr. Linet currently is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, and the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Epidemiology. During 2004-2005 Dr. Linet was President of the American College of Epidemiology. She also previously served as the NCI liaison to the Committee on Environmental Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Advisory Group on Cancer and the Environment to the American Cancer Society, and the Standing Committee on Epidemiology of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection. Dr. Linet authored The Leukemias: Epidemiologic Aspects, an internationally recognized text in the field. Among her honors are NIH Merit and Director’s Awards and election to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. (updated from the NCI website 5/2015)

NANCY JO NICHOLAS

Nancy Jo Nicholas has worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) since 1990 and currently holds the title of Principal Director of Strategic Outcomes. She has oversight of the Nonproliferation, Treaty Verification, Arms Control, and Nuclear Forensics programs at LANL. She is also a founding member of the Board of Directors of WINS – the Vienna-based World Institute for Nuclear Security. She is a Fellow of the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management (INMM), the premiere international professional society for nonproliferation, arms control, nuclear security and international safeguards, and recently served a two-year term as president. Nicholas recently served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Improving the Assessment of the Proliferation Risk of Nuclear Fuel Cycles and the Defense Science Board Task Force on the Assessment of Nuclear Treaty Monitoring. She earned a B.S. in mathematics and physics from Albright College and a Masters degree in experimental nuclear physics from George Washington University.

HENRY D. ROYAL

Henry D. Royal, M.D., is professor of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and associate director of nuclear medicine at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology. He is trained in internal medicine and nuclear medicine and has been practicing nuclear medicine for 40 years, working in both academic and hospital settings. Dr. Royal was a member of the American Board of Nuclear Medicine from 1993 to 1999 and served as its executive director from 2004 to 2014. He also served as president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine from 2003 to 2004. He received the American College of Nuclear Medicine’s lifetime achievement award in 2016. Dr. Royal was a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation from 2002 to 2005; co-team leader of the health effects section of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s International Chernobyl Project; a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments; chair of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements Scientific Committee on Radiation Effects on the Thyroid; and scientific chair of the Veterans’ Advisory Committee on Environmental Hazards (2001 to 2010). He has been listed in “Best Doctors in America” since 1992. He received his M.D. degree from St. Louis University.

DANIEL O. STRAM

Daniel O. Stram, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. He received his Ph.D. in statistics from Temple University in 1983 and served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Biostatistics Department of the Harvard School of Public Health from 1984 to 1986. From 1986 to 1989 he was a research associate at RERF in Hiroshima, Japan. Dr. Stram’s main areas of research are in the statistical problems that arise in the design, analysis, and interpretation of epidemiological studies of cancer and other diseases. His work on radiation epidemiology studies includes (1) helping to characterize the statistical nature of errors in dose estimates for the atomic bomb survivor study, (2) developing a multilevel variance components model for the dosimetry used in the Colorado Plateau uranium miners cohort for the purpose of better understanding dose and dose rate effects in those data, and (3) characterizing study power and sample size issues in epidemiologic studies in which a complex dosimetry system is used to estimate radiation dose. Besides the field of radiation epidemiology, his past and current research has focused on statistical issues relevant to clinical trials of treatment for pediatric cancer, nutritional epidemiology studies, and to studies of the genetics of complex diseases. He is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association and has authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Stram has served on several National Research Council Committees. His most recent service was on the NRSB’s Committee on the Analysis of Cancer Risks in Populations Near Nuclear Facilities – Phase 1.

William H. Tobey

William H. Tobey is a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School. He was most recently deputy administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation at the National Nuclear Security Administration. There, he managed the U.S. government’s largest program to prevent nuclear proliferation and terrorism by detecting, securing, and disposing of dangerous nuclear material. Mr. Tobey also served on the National Security Council (NSC) staff in three administrations—Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush—working in defense policy, arms control, and counterproliferation positions. As director of counterproliferation strategy at the NSC, he oversaw development and implementation of U.S. policy on nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, was a delegate to the Six Party Talks with North Korea, managed U.S. efforts to dismantle Libya’s weapons of mass destruction programs, and authored the first draft of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540, which criminalizes nonstate proliferation and obligates all states to establish and maintain effective safeguards, security, and export controls. Mr. Tobey previously participated in a variety of international negotiations, including the Nuclear and Space Talks with the Soviet Union and the U.S.-Russia Space Cooperation agreement. He has served on the National Research Council’s Committee on Improving the Assessment of Proliferation Risk of Nuclear Fuel Cycles. He received a B.S. from Northwestern University and an M.P.P. degree from Harvard University.

Sergey Vladimirovich Yudintsev

Sergey Vladimirovich Yudintsev, Ph.D., is a specialist in the field of scientific basis for management of radioactive waste derived in the nuclear fuel cycle. He is Head of the Laboratory of Radiogeology and Radiogeoecology at the Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy, and Geochemistry Russian Academy of Sciences (IGEM RAS) where he has been involved in research on geochemical-mineralogical aspects of radioactive waste disposal problems, searching for new matrices for isolation of long-lived radionuclides of actinides and fission products (technetium). In his career at RAS he has worked as a researcher and principal scientist studying the issue of safe and sustainable development of nuclear energy, including problems of minor actinides transmutation and the thorium-fuel cycle. He has cooperated on research with the Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Moscow Scientific and Industrial Association—SIA “Radon", Moscow and Saint-Petersburg State Universities, and with Russian state non-profit organizations under Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, including the Khlopin Radium Institute, Research Institute of Atomic Reactors (RIAR), Bochvar All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Inorganic Materials (VNIINM)，All-Russia Research Institute of Chemical Technology (VNIIChT) and the Leipunsky Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE). Additionally, he has performed joint research with the University of Michigan for over 10 years. Dr. Yudintsev has published more than 230 papers in Russian and international journals, and chapters in books, presented at international conferences, and participated in joint meetings and workshops of Russian and American experts, such as the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) and Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) workshops. Dr. Yudintsev received his undergraduate degree in geochemistry from Moscow State University in 1981 and his Ph.D. in 1989 and a D.Sc. in 2009 from IGEM RAS. In 2011, he was elected as a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.