The ICRP awarded the Cousins Award for Young Scientists and Professionals for the first time at the Sixth International Symposium on the System of Radiological Protection, which took place from 7 to 10 November in Vancouver, Canada. The young scientists’ award went to Luana Hafner, specialist in radiological protection at ENSI. A panel of international experts assessed the quality of the scientific research and its presentation at this year’s symposium “ICRP 2021+1”. ENSI’s radiation protection expert, Luana Hafner, triumphed over three other finalists with her work on “The Impact of Different Neutron RBEs on the All Solid Cancer Radiation Incident Risks Obtained from the Japanese A-bomb Survivors Data”.
Hafner’s presentation was based on her scientific article on new findings in the calculation of tumour risks. In collaboration with epidemiologists Linda Walsh and Werner Rühm, she presented a model with which tumour risks can be calculated for higher neutron biological effectivenesses using data from the atomic bomb survivors.
The award was established by former ICRP Chair Dr Claire Cousins. Eligibility is restricted to those who gained their postgraduate degree within the past five years.
