Mission Statement

The Isotopes and Radiation Division (IRD) is focused on fundamental and applied technology related to the production and use of isotopes, nuclear methods of analysis, and the measurement of radionuclides and ionizing radiation.  Specific areas of interest to IRD members include:

• Production, characterization, and utilization of isotopes for medicine and industry using reactors and alternate sources of production,
• Nuclear methods for material characterization including ionizing radiation beam techniques and activation analysis,
• Radiometric and radiochemistry techniques for quantitative analysis, nuclear data measurements, and the study of radionuclide behavior in the environment, and
• Measurement techniques and applications as they apply to nuclear security including treaty monitoring and verification, nuclear nonproliferation, safeguarding nuclear materials, and nuclear forensics.
• The application and development of nuclear technology for the life sciences, as well as the impact of such technology on society including radiation beam therapy, medical physics, radiographic and radioisotope imaging, radionuclide biological tracers, instrumentation, radiopharmaceutical synthesis and radionuclide production, dosimetry and effects of ionizing radiation, and other related subjects.

IRD/BMD Merger

On November 20, 2019 the American Nuclear Society Board of Directors unanimously approved the reunification of the Biology and Medicine Division (BMD) into the Isotope and Radiation Division (IRD) with an updated mission statement, technical committee list, and bylaws. The BMD grew out of the IRD some 30 years ago (1987) and the two have always been closely linked in technical interest and historically retained a great degree of overlap in the executive committees.

The merged division has retained the Isotope and Radiation Division name, being one of the original divisions of the Society. As a Division Chair for both IRD and BMD on numerous occasions, both Steve and I have seen a general decline in the ability to support two separate divisions with the necessary program chairs and executive committee membership that drew away from the ability to operate high-quality technical sessions and provide professional leadership on important topics and position statements. We believe that recognizing and embracing the fact that IRD operates under a broad set of committees allows a combined division to be technically stronger going forward. We do not believe that every subgroup requires a separate named division, all too often have we seen a small passionate group come in for a year or two and then leave the society with a poorly supported technical area or division. We believe that it is better to strengthen our technical committees and focus on bringing value to our membership by (1) putting on outstanding technical content as part of National Meetings as well as topical meetings and (2) helping to address technical and scientific matters affecting nuclear science.

The merged division is made stronger by allowing us to focus on technical contributions to National and topical meetings and renewing our focus on strong working technical committees. IRD continues to be a leader in technical contributions to the National and International scientific community through its co-sponsorship of the MARC conference with the Northern California Local Section ensuring that MARC remains the premier topical meeting in the field. While the name BMD is no longer present, the technical committees, position statements and science that is important to both divisions remain. IRD is becoming more strategic by looking at opportunities to put on new or revive dormant topical meetings important to IRD members and ANS. We look forward to helping ANS align on a path to ensure the continued long-term success of the Society and provide value to its membership.

Please visit the IRD website for all current information.

Why join IRD

Our diverse membership is from academia, government, and industry, and consistently works to present a program interesting to its approximately 850 members, which includes over 100 student members.

With the merger of IRD and BMD we are looking to reenergize our executive committee and our ten technical committees. For more information on getting involved, please visit out Getting Involved page (http://ird.ans.org/get-involved/).