ORAU-UT Health Physics Certificate Program

Offered jointly by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) and the University of Tennessee (UT)

Purpose

To provide a formal means to document that an individual has achieved a baseline level of training in health physics.

This certificate program does not provide a “certification” of the type awarded by the American Board of Health Physics (ABHP), nor does it “certify” an individual in health physics.

General Requirements

Participants must attend one requisite core course and three additional elective courses (in no particular order). In addition, the participant must submit a capstone paper that must be evaluated and approved.

At some point during the process (the timing is not critical), it is the responsibility of the individual to notify the ORAU Registrar of his/her desire to participate in the program. From this point on, the Registrar will track the student through the program and identify when the training requirements have been met. Finally, when the capstone paper has been evaluated and approved, the ORAU coordinator will sign the application and forward it to the University of Tennessee Professional & Personal Development office. UT will then issue the Health Physics Certificate to the successful candidate.

Capstone Paper

The capstone paper (10-20 pages in length) must reflect the candidate's original work and be related to a particular issue/focus area in health physics. The paper (or papers) might be written before or after the individual enters the certificate program, however, the specific topic should receive the approval of the ORAU program coordinator. After the paper has been submitted, it must be evaluated and approved.

Cost

If all the coursework is conducted after June 1, 2009, the only cost to the participant will be the standard tuition fees for the courses. If any or all of the coursework is conducted prior to this date, a prorated fee will be charged to cover the administrative cost of the program.

Requisite Course

Participants must attend ORAU's Applied Health Physics (five-week) course.

Elective Courses

The three elective courses must be selected from any of the following offered by ORAU:

• Air Sampling for Radioactive Materials
• Environmental Monitoring
• Gamma Spectroscopy
• MARSSIM
• Radiation Safety Officer Training
• Site Characterization in Support of Decommissioning: Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation

Course Information and Registration

Registration information can be obtained by visiting ORAU's Health Physics Training page.