November 12, 2004

Nuclear Engineering Thrives Under the Marshall Plan

Lisa Marshall holds a Geiger counter she uses to demonstrate how common items often contain naturally occurring radiation. (Photo: Jennifer Weston)

“When you hear ‘nuclear engineering,’ what comes to mind?”

That’s the first question Lisa Marshall asks when she enters a classroom. As director of outreach for the Department of Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University, she gets some interesting responses.

“I usually hear ‘the bomb,’ ‘radiation,’ ‘glow in the dark’ and then some component of the latest Hollywood movie that has anything to do with nuclear engineering,” she said.

Marshall relies on the idea that if you understand something then you don’t have to fear it. That’s why her main thrust since coming to NC State in 2001 has been to reach as many students and teachers as she can to increase their awareness of the field of nuclear engineering. Through science teacher workshops, classroom visits, open houses and summer programs, Marshall and others have demystified nuclear science for dozens of teachers and more than 4,000 pre-college students in the past three years.

Marshall organizes workshops for high school teachers each spring and programs for high school students in summer. (Photo: Felicia Watson-Gray)

Once initial fears and misconceptions are set aside, Marshall said one can start teaching about nuclear theory, fission and fusion, and the role of nuclear science in our daily lives. “We utilize it on a daily basis but are not necessarily aware of it.”

Take nuclear medicine — one out of three people going into the hospital come into contact with nuclear medicine, whether through barium enemas that help diagnose gastrointestinal abnormalities, therapeutic radiation treatments for prostate and breast cancers or radiation used to sterilize medical supplies and instruments.

Beyond medicine, nuclear technology is found in items that people come in contact with on a regular basis: campsite lanterns, smoke detectors and polymerized plastics in car dashboards. Irradiation also is used to kill dangerous illness-causing microorganisms, such as salmonella and E. coli, which frequently contaminate meat and poultry.

The main point for Marshall is that nuclear technology has been used safely and successfully for years. At controlled levels, it can be a great benefit in many aspects of our lives, including power generation. Nuclear power currently provides 21 percent of all U.S. energy resources.

The prevalence of nuclear science in North Carolina’s high school curriculum has created a target audience for Marshall.

According to Marshall, science teacher workshops, held each spring at NC State’s nuclear engineering department, are invaluable for those who want to increase their knowledge of and comfort level with nuclear engineering. These workshops include lectures on radiation sources and radioactivity, nuclear reactions, detection and biological effects, combined with hands-on radiation detection and exponential law experiments plus tours of the research reactor and neutron activation analysis lab. “When teachers are comfortable with the material, they pass their enthusiasm on to their students,” Marshall noted. She makes several classroom visits per year.

NC State also hosts the Young Investigators’ summer program in nuclear technology, a three-week residential program held every July that provides high school students with an in-depth education in nuclear engineering topics and an opportunity to perform hands-on experiments.

	Orginally from Trinidad, Lisa Marshall was educated in Ottawa, Canada, where she worked before moving to Raleigh. She started her PhD in the geography of science in fall 2004. Her husband is a technology education student at NC State. In her free time, Lisa enjoys yoga, cultural arts and travel.

Working so closely with students has made for some interesting revelations, Marshall noted. As soon as she brings up forensics or nuclear medicine, she is bombarded with questions concerning the latest television episode of “ER” or “CSI.” To Marshall, this reaction points out a group of students not necessarily interested in going to medical school but fascinated with the technology. “I can show them that there are other ways to link their interests to future study or work opportunities.”

Understanding the high school mind assists Marshall in another major aspect of her job — undergraduate recruitment — and she goes about it in an unusual way. Marshall uses Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping techniques to identify high schools and individual candidates with the best potential for advancing nuclear studies. “There is a culture around knowledge production in the scientific realm,” she explained. “I’mlooking at the environment in which nuclear science is produced.” It’s her belief that recognizing those students with high PSAT and SAT scores and an expressed interest in engineering, then mapping them by county, will make her a more effective and efficient recruiter.

Marshall said that the national trend shows a growing interest in nuclear science from students, as well as from government and industry. Such unique recruiting methods could quickly become a big advantage in maintaining and building on a strong nuclear engineering program that this year celebrated its 50th anniversary.

“Nationwide, there is an increase in the number of students going into nuclear engineering,” she said. “We want to keep in line with that trend — but most importantly, we want to attract the highest quality students.”

— pishney —

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