Kathryn A. Higley PhD

Kathryn A. Higley is a Professor and Head of the School of Nuclear Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University. Dr. Higley received both her PhD and MS in Radiological Health Sciences from Colorado State University, and her BA in Chemistry from Reed College. She has held both Reactor Operator and Senior Reactor Operator’s licenses, and is a former Reactor Supervisor for the Reed College TRIGA reactor. Dr. Higley started her career as a Radioecologist for Portland General Electric. She later worked for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a Senior Research Scientist in the area of environmental health physics. Dr. Higley has been at Oregon State University since 1994 teaching undergraduate and graduate classes on radioecology, dosimetry, radiation protection, radiochemistry, and radiation biology.

Her fields of interest include environmental transport and fate of radionuclides, radioecology, radiochemistry, radiation dose assessment, neutron activation analysis, nuclear emergency response, and environmental regulations. She is vice-chair of the International Commission on Radiological Protection’s Committee 4 (Application of the Commission’s Recommendations); a fellow of the Health Physics Society and a Certified Health Physicist.