The Radiation Health Physics program is designed to prepare students for careers involved with the many beneficial applications of nuclear energy, radiation, and radioactive materials. The Radiation Health Physics profession is essential to society’s well-being since they enable significant public benefits through energy security, national defense, medical health, and industrial competitiveness.

This graduate curricula and research programs are designed for students with professional interests in the field of radiation protection. This specialized field involves an integrated study of the physical aspects of ionizing and nonionizing radiation, their biological effects, and the methods used to protect people and their environment from radiation hazards while still enabling the beneficial uses of radiation and radioactive materials.

Competitive fellowships and research and teaching assistantships are available to incoming graduate students. The U.S. Department of Energy and National Academy for Nuclear Training support a number of fellowship programs each year. Oregon State University is one of eight participating universities in the U.S. where students may attend graduate school on the Nuclear Engineering, Health Physics, and Applied Health Physics fellowships sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Each year the National Academy for Nuclear Training also supports fellowships for students entering nuclear engineering and radiation health physics at OSU. Research and teaching assistant opportunities are also available for students to support the educational and research programs conducted by the department.

World-class facilities are available for the instructional and research programs of the school. These are housed in the OSU Radiation Center and include a TRIGA Mark II nuclear reactor, the Advanced Thermal Hydraulic Research Laboratory, the APEX nuclear safety scaled testing facility, and laboratories specially designed to accommodate radiation and the use of radioactive materials.