Radioactive reindeer researcher scoops international science award
Monday 18 September 2017
A PhD student in the School of Environment & Life Sciences, has received international recognition for his research into external radiation dose measurement for wildlife.
Phakphum Aramrun, who most people know as Moo, was presented with the Young Investigator Award at the triennial International Conference on Radioecology and Environmental Radioactivity in Berlin last week. The Award, which recognises Moo’s “outstanding radioecological contribution”, was presented by Dr Francois Brechignac (General Secretary of the International Union of Radioecology).
Now in the third year of his PhD, Moo has been developing new methods for measuring the radiation exposure of wild animals in radioactively contaminated environments. He has been testing these methods using reindeer living in an area of Norway that received a significant amount of radiocaesium deposition from the Chernobyl accident.
Coming from Thailand, Moo had only ever seen snow once before, but for his PhD fieldwork he had to brave the freezing conditions in a part of Norway where the winter temperature can drop to -20oC. Moo embraced this challenge and the opportunity to work with scientists at the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, who have been monitoring radiocaesium levels in the reindeer over a number of years to ensure that reindeer meat entering the foodchain is safe.
Given the topic of Moo’s PhD, it will come as no surprise that his supervisors are Dr Mike Wood (Reader in Applied Ecology in ELS) and Prof Nick Beresford (Honorary Professor in ELS). Mike and Nick’s radioecological research, and in particular their research in Chernobyl, has received extensive media coverage and led to their receiving the Times Higher Education Research Project of the Year Award in 2016. Both Mike and Nick were presenting at the conference in Berlin and were delighted to hear that Moo had received the Young Investigator Award.
Mike said “There is no doubt that Moo has made a real impact in the field of radioecology. His work has research, industrial and regulatory applications. Results from his field study in Norway are contributing to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) MODARIA II programme and Moo will be presenting his work at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna later this year. Additional research that we are undertaking with Prof Peter Hogg at Salford is leading to the development of a new radiation dose model for the International Commission for Radiological Protection’s environmental assessment system. Given the extent of his contribution to the field, even before he has finished his PhD, this international award for Moo is very well-deserved”.
Moo’s PhD is supported by the Thai Office of Atoms for Peace and is linked to the TREE project, which is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, Nuclear Waste Management Ltd and the Environment Agency.
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