1950
In 1950, ORINS began administration of the AEC-sponsored predoctoral fellowship program for the Southeast and Southwest part of the United States. Thirty-nine fellows in the region applied that first year, and 10 were awarded fellowships. Also in 1950, ORINS assumed responsibility for administering the AEC's Radiological Physics Fellowship Program, which was established at Vanderbilt University and the University of Rochester. That first year, 225 students applied, and 20 fellowships were awarded to each university.
In 1950, the Medical Division and the M.D. Anderson Hospital for Cancer Research in Texas began working together to design and build a radiocobalt teletherapy unit.
It was believed that the use of cobalt-60 for supervoltage irradiation would be a most valuable therapeutic instrument.
An animal colony and experimental laboratory were completed in cooperation with the University of Tennessee-Atomic Energy Commission Agricultural Research Program in 1950.
Dr. Elizabeth Rona joined the staff of the Special Training Division in 1950. Fluent in a number of languages and very experienced in working with radioactivity, Dr. Rona was a valuable member of the division's teaching staff. She also brought to the division her research into the geochronology of marine sediments based on determinations of uranium and thorium in seawater.
Photo, right: Construction on ORINS' 30-bed Cancer Research Hospital, which was a remodeled one-story wing of the Oak Ridge Hospital and a new two-story wing, was completed in 1950. The first patient, a woman with extensive thyroid cancer, was admitted in 1950.