Radiation warning sign outside of a lab

Department of Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences News

The Department of Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences within the School of Integrated Health Sciences provides a high-quality educational experience for undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of health physics and medical physics; nuclear medicine; comprehensive medical imaging; radiochemistry; and radiography.

Current Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences News

UNLV letters surrounded by roses
Campus News | March 17, 2023

A roundup of news stories highlighting UNLV faculty and students who made headlines locally, nationally, and globally.

radiological safety warning sign
Research | March 9, 2023

UNLV School of Integrated Health Sciences professor Francis Cucinotta participates in research with implications to be felt from a doctor’s exam room to the nuclear energy industry. 

photo illustration of man with sports equipment graphics
People | September 12, 2022

This longtime Rebel and physical education program coordinator is helping UNLV shape up inside and outside of the classroom.

Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine graduates line up to cross the commencement stage
Campus News | December 30, 2021

A collection of 2021 headlines highlighting medical school milestones, a steady stronghold on diversity and research rankings, student success, and media mentions featuring faculty experts.

Students pose between U.N.L.V. letters
Campus News | July 9, 2021

A collection of news stories highlighting remembrance and improvement at UNLV.

A portrait of U.N.L.V.'s new president Keith Whitfield on campus.
Campus News | August 10, 2020

As summer heats up, so do the accomplishments on UNLV’s campus.

Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences In The News

Insider
March 23, 2023

Nuclear blasts create dangerous fallout — residual radioactive material that travels high into the air, cools into dust, and eventually settles back to the ground, poisoning it in the process.

Daily Mail
February 9, 2023

A new era of spaceflight has dawned with NASA's Artemis programme, which aims to establish a base camp on the moon and lay groundwork for a future trip to Mars. The US space agency will send humans back to the lunar surface in 2025, but its manned missions to the Red Planet won't take place until the 2030s.Meanwhile, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk thinks he can beat NASA to it by sending crewed flights to Mars as soon as the second half of this decade.

Smithsonian Magazine
January 18, 2023

NASA is preparing to return astronauts to the lunar surface. And this time with more ambitious goals.

Supercluster
January 18, 2023

Those missions, which had a successful kickoff with Artemis-1, will establish the groundwork for months-long human habitation on the Lunar surface. Proposed base camps will present unique opportunities to test technology, unravel scientific secrets about the Moon's past and present, search for the presence of water, and more.

Nuclear Newswire
November 12, 2021

ANS is hosting a virtual Graduate School Fair on Friday, November 19, from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (EST). The goal of the event is to help prepare the next generation of nuclear professionals and to keep early career and seasoned experts at the top of their game.

nuclear-news
July 15, 2021

Women were more likely to develop lung cancer than men, suggesting a greater sex-based vulnerability to harmful radiation.

Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences Experts

An expert in how environmental and man-made radiation affects the body.
An expert on the use of lasers in diagnosing and treating brain tumors.
An expert in radiation sciences and medical applications.

Recent Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences Accomplishments

March 23, 2023
Zaijing Sun (Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) was recently interviewed by insider.com and talked about the impact of nuclear fallout. His discussion was published in the science section of Insider.com and titled: "A nuclear physicist describes 7 things you probably didn't know about radioactive fallout from a nuclear bomb."  
November 7, 2022
Krishnakumar Nangeelil, Peter Dimpfl, Zaijing Sun (all Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences), Shichun Huang (currently faculty at UTK, a former member of the department of geosciences at UNLV), and Mayir Mamtimin (Halliburton) published an article titled, "Preliminary Study on Forgery Identification of Hetian Jade with Instrumental Neutron…
November 3, 2022
Zaijing Sun and Krishnakumar Nangeelil (both Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) recently gave oral presentations at the 26th International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry in Denton, Texas. Sun's talk is titled, "Developing a Remote Gamma Spectra Collection System for Radiation Sciences at UNLV," and…
October 24, 2022
Alexander Barzilov (Mechanical Engineering) and Zaijing Sun (Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) gave recruitment presentations and answered questions about the nuclear engineering and health physics programs at the 2022 American Nuclear Society Virtual Graduate School Fair last week. UNLV was among 25 universities invited to have recruitment…
October 11, 2022
Krishnakumar Nangeelil, Christina Hall, and Zaijing Sun (all Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) and their collaborator, Wesley Frey at the McClellan Nuclear Research Center of the University of California Davis, published an article titled, "Biomarker response of Spanish moss to heavy metal air pollution in the low country of the Savannah…
August 11, 2022
Zaijing Sun and Krishnakumar Nangeelil (both Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) and their collaborators, Cai Qingseng and Scott Lassell of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the North Carolina State University, published an article titled “Investigation of Heavy Metals in Cottonseeds with Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA…