Ed Waller Receives the 2022 CRPA Meritorious Service Award

by Donata Chaulk and Ali Shoushtarian · October 11, 2022

The Meritorious Service Award recognizes significant service provided to the Canadian Radiation Protection Association (CRPA) or to the radiation protection community in general. This year, the award was presented to Dr. Edward Waller for his overall support of, and service to CRPA.

Ed, as he is commonly known, has long been actively promoting CRPA among students, encouraging prospective new members, and raising the profile of our association within the nuclear science community. Ed has made signiﬁcant efforts to spread awareness of the scope, work, and activity of CRPA.

He is a past president of CRPA and a current member of the CRPA Professional Development Committee and the Programme Committee for ICRP 2021+1. Ed also participated in the first ever North American Regional Conference, hosted by the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA) and the Health Physics Society (HPS), where he presented information about CRPA’s diversity initiatives, outcomes, and challenges.^[1] He also shared CRPA’s overall scope and activities at the IRPA 2022 Associate Societies Forum.^[2]

Ed’s engagement, by way of sharing his experiences and ideas, was very valuable in the development of the CRPA Professional Development (PD) Program proposal.^[3] The proposal – now approved – provided a comprehensive description of how the PD program is expected to run in the months and years to come. Ed also joined a group of volunteer CRPA PD instructors.

Ed is a full professor at Ontario Tech University in the Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science, and is currently a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) / University Network of Excellence in Nuclear Engineering (UNENE) Industrial Research Chair in Health Physics and Environmental Safety.

Ed’s work for the beneﬁt of the association makes him very deserving of the Meritorious Service Award.

[1] For more information, see the May 2022 Bulletin article, Update from the President’s Task Force on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI Task Force).

[2] An Associate Societies Forum is organized at each IRPA International and Regional Congress to give representatives of participating associate societies an opportunity to discuss the activities of IRPA and issues of common interest to IRPA members. The 2022 Associate Societies Forum was held on February 21 and included talks by representatives from IRPA, HPS, CRPA, Sociedad Mexicana de Seguridad Radiológica (SMSR), and Pan American Health Organization.

[3] For more information, see the May 2021 Bulletin article, CRPA’s Professional Development Journey.

Résumé

Ed Waller reçoit le Prix de services méritoires 2022 de l’ACRP

Le Prix de services méritoires est présenté au récipiendaire pour des services importants fournis à l’Association canadienne de radioprotection (ACRP) ou à la communauté de la radioprotection en général. Cette année, le prix a été remis au Dr Edward Waller pour le soutien et les services qu’il a fournis à l’ACRP. Découvrez quelques-unes des raisons pour lesquelles il se mérite le prix en raison de sa contribution.

Biographies

Donata Chaulk

Donata completed an MSc in biomedical physics at the University of Gdańsk before coming to Canada, where she completed an MSc in medical physics at the University of Alberta (U of A) in 2007. While completing her degree, she worked at the Cross Cancer Institute. After graduating, she worked for Alberta Health Services until 2012, when she took on the challenge of building a radiation safety program for the cyclotron and radiopharmacy at the U of A. She has been the U of A’s radiation safety officer since 2016.

Donata is also CRPA’s director of Professional Development.

Ali Shoushtarian

Ali obtained a BSc (honours) in biochemistry from the University of Ottawa and a graduate certificate in forensic science from Mount Royal University. He spent six years as the radiation safety officer at the University of Ottawa overseeing operational procedures for over 50 academic research laboratories. Currently, he is the senior radiation safety specialist with the Ottawa Hospital.

Ali joined CRPA in 2007. He is a past president of CRPA.

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