Member SpotlightsDr. Shirwadkar: Developing the Tools of Life Science Urmila Shirwadkar   New Member: Joined March 2011. 1. Professional title and degree? I am working as a scientist at a research company ‘Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc.’ (RMD), located in Watertown, Massachusetts. I completed my PhD in Physics and Applied Physics from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) in 2009. 2. Organization/Institution you are currently employed at? I am working in the advanced materials group at RMD to develop novel radiation detectors for various nuclear science applications. 3. Educational background? In 2001, I received my MS degree in Physics from University of Mumbai, India. I explored the teaching profession in India for about two years. I worked as an electronics teacher for close to two years at a degree college in Mumbai (SIES college of Arts and Science). I was mainly teaching electronics and instrumentation to junior college students. Subsequently, I pursued further research in Physics in the United States. I worked in the Heavy-Ion Spectroscopic Investigations (HI-SPIN) group at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) over the summer of 2003, and got a flavor of the very exciting experimental nuclear structure research. The necessary background in nuclear physics and the hands-on laboratory training at UML led me to enroll into the PhD program in Nuclear Physics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell in Fall 2003. I completed my second master’s degree from UML, and was conferred a doctoral degree in 2009. During my graduate years my training was mainly in the field of experimental nuclear physics, and nuclear instrumentation. After I joined the PhD program at UML, I was a teaching assistant, conducting laboratory sessions for the first year Physics students. 4. Professional background? In a collaborative effort between UML and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), I have participated in many experiments at ANL, which houses the state of the art infrastructure involving heavy-ion accelerator ATLAS, and gamma-ray spectrometer Gammasphere. These DOE funded experiments to study nuclei at high angular momentum are highly complex continuous runs over a few days to week/s. The experimental multi-parameter data collected at ANL were analyzed at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. I have presented the research work at various American Physical Society (APS), Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP) meetings, and published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals such as Physical Review Letters (PRL). I was awarded as 2009 Sciences Graduate Research Scholar of the year, by the Society of Sigma Xi, UMass Lowell chapter. My current position a scientist at RMD for the past two years has allowed me to expand my expertise to the field of radiation detector development for various nuclear monitoring applications. 5. Academic/Professional interests? As a scientist at RMD, the primary interest is to develop novel scintillation and semiconductor detectors for homeland security, various noninvasive medical applications (example: SPECT, PET), and fundamental nuclear physics research experiments. My current work specifically involves characterizing scintillation materials by testing them for their use as potential cost-effective radiation detectors for medical imaging and nuclear non-proliferation applications. 6. Outside interests? I enjoy traveling and exploring different places. I also like to listen to music, participate in dances, and play tennis. 7. Please describe your motivations as to why you wanted to go into the scientific field -- what were your motivations or inspirations? Atomic nucleus is a complex many-body system consisting of protons and neutrons. The primary motivation lies in the fact that information about nuclear shape and symmetry provides valuable insight into the structure of a nucleus. Understanding the structure of heavy actinides provides answers to many fundamental questions in science such as the very existence of superheavy nuclei and magic shell gaps. As a part of my MS and PhD, I explored rare earth and heavy actinide nuclear chart regions, focusing on the exploration of shape-coexistence and metastable states (isomers) in nuclei. Nuclei are well deformed in the region of rare earths and heavy actinides, hence are most suitable to explore these phenomena. These experiments are crucial in identifying the next neutron and proton magic shell gaps. As a part of my M.S. thesis, I investigated the prolate-to-oblate shape transition in hafnium nucleus, in collaboration between UML, ANL, and Rochester University. A state-of-the-art gamma-ray spectrometer- Gmmasphere consisting of 110 high purity Ge detectors was used in conjunction with a heavy-ion particle detector CHICO to reconstruct the kinematics. My PhD dissertation enabled a discovery of new metastable states in 246, 248Cm nuclei. The experimental information in the Z > 100 mass region and heavy actinides is very sparse due to experimental limitations arising from huge fission backgrounds. The energy information of the underlying orbitals of the isomers in 246, 248Cm allow direct comparison with theoretical models, verifying accountability of the model predictions of the superheavy nuclei. These results provide valuable input for different models, which are crucial in predicting the island of stability beyond known magic shell-gaps at Z = 82 and N = 126. My current research is more application based requiring strong background in experimental gamma-ray spectroscopy. The motivation comes from the fact that my research directly impacts public health and safety. It has a major impact on health care by developing novel scintillators suitable for various medical imaging applications such as Computed Tomography (CT), SPECT, X-ray imaging, and PET. My research also has a major impact on national safety. Gamma-ray signatures are generally used for detecting nuclear materials. It is difficult to distinguish gammas from backgrounds and innocent radiological materials, which can result in high false alarm rate. Some applications viz. detecting illegally trafficked nuclear materials, require simultaneous detection of both neutron and gamma radiation. Dual neutron-gamma detectors have a potential to reduce the false alarm rate. Conventionally this is accomplished with a combination of two detectors registering neutrons and gammas separately. At RMD as a key team member, I am dedicated to developing new nuclear detection materials for dual gamma-neutron detection to replace He-3 tubes, in the light of its worldwide shortage. ### << Previous Next >> [ View All Member Spotlights ] |
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