Experience

Nisy Ipe worked for over 16 years as a radiation physicist at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford, CA. The work involved shielding design and calculations for various machines including the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) 3 GeV injector, the SSRL beam lines, and the SPEAR storage ring. She also performed radiation measurements at commissioning and radiation damage studies, ensured radiation safety for various radiation producing devices such as klystrons and other radio frequency sources, reviewed interlocks and other safety systems. She developed and implemented radiation safety training programs, certified operators, trained female radiation workers and reviewed D.O.E. orders and SLAC policies and procedures. During the latter part of her career at SLAC, she served as the Department Head of Radiation Physics and as the Radiation Safety Officer at SLAC.

She also worked as a consultant from SLAC in the shielding design and radiological aspects of the synchrotron beamlines at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois.

She also gave lectures on various aspects of radiation for the San Jose State graduate program, to students participating in the SLAC Summer Internships in Science and Engineering, at the Science Workshop for High School Physics Teachers and to the community at large. Her research interests included neutron production at medical accelerators, response of instruments to pulsed radiation, neutron monitoring (CR-39 solid state track detectors, bubble and superheated drop detectors) high level dosimetry and characterization of dosimeters suitable for use at synchrotron radiation facilities. She was also an experimenter at SSRL for several years and worked briefly as a visiting scientist at the Centre for Ionizing Radiation Metrology, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK. She performed measurements with various ionization chambers, using very low energy X-rays and determined calibration and kch factors (for in use in radiotherapy dosimetry protocols) for various ionization chambers.

After a brief stint at Xoft Microtube, Milpitas, CA, where she performed dosimetry (measurements and Monte Carlo calculations) for therapy x-ray tubes, Nisy launched out as a private consultant. During the past few years, she has successfully shielded about 60 therapy linear accelerator facilities, high dose rate brachytherapy facilities, and many diagnostic and nuclear medicine facilities. (CT, PET-CT, radiographic, radiographic and fluoroscopic, and interventional facilities), and performed integrity radiation surveys. She has been involved in the design of particle therapy facilities. Nisy has also shielded several cargo and border security inspection systems, industrial imaging systems, and research facilities such as the University of Hawaii Free Electron Laser Facility. Nisy has also helped clients develop Radiation Safety Manuals and Radiation Protection Programs, and aided with licensing and regulatory compliance. She has taught shielding related courses, at 1) 2003 Health Physics Society Professional Enrichment Program in San Diego; 2) ICRS 10 and RPS 2004 International Conference: 21st Century Challenges in Radiation Protection and Radiation Shielding, Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal; 3) 2004 California Radiation Safety Officers Meeting at Stanford University, Stanford, CA; 4) 2005 South Eastern Chapter of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (SEAAPM) Symposium: The New Radiation Shielding Methodologies for Medical Imaging and Therapy Facilities - A Primer for the Next 30 Years, Charleston, South Carolina; 5) Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in Ottawa, Canada (March 2005); 6) American College of Medical Physics Annual Meeting 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada; and at the American Association of Physicists in Medicine 2006 Meeting in Orlando, Florida.