"IN MEMORIA" Karl Z. Morgan
Por João Quintela de Brito
Tive conhecimento, ainda que tardio, do desaparecimento do saudoso Doutor KZ MORGAN, que foi como já referimos e julgamos ser do conhecimento generalizado entre nós protecionistas, o primeiro Presidente da HEALTH PHYSICS SOCIETY e na nossa opinião o vetor determinante da própria IRPA.
Tivemos o privilégio grato de com ele e Sua Exma. Esposa convivermos, aquando do Simpósio sobre "Rapid Methods for Measuring Radioactivity in the Environment" que se realizou em Julho de 1971, nos arredores de Munique, em Neuherberg.
Permitimo-nos com o respeito que a memória das pessoas nos autoriza, inserir uma fotografia, que tiramos ao casal Morgan, em Insbruck, aquando do evento referido.
Graças ao entusiasmo, sentido com a sua inesquecível simpatia e ao elevado nível do seu cabedal de conhecimentos científicos, em todos os domínios da Proteção Contra Radiações, candidatei-me a sócio da Health Physics Society.
Começava assim a germinar em mim o desejo de ver nascer uma Sociedade Científica que em Portugal se dedicasse à temática da Proteção Contra Radiações, nas suas duas componentes fundamentais: - a ionizante e a não ionizante. Em Karl Morgan senti o necessário conforto moral para empreender tão árdua tarefa.
A Sociedade Portuguesa de Proteção Contra Radiações, cumprimenta a sua congénere Americana enviando-lhe sentidas condolências e solicita-lhe que exprima à Exma. Família do Doutor K. Morgan, a expressão do seu profundo pesar.
Nota: inserimos, devidamente autorizados, um artigo de um seu neto, Matthew Morgan, que ilustra bem a vida de um dos grandes obreiros desta Ciência Multidisciplinar, que rasgou novos horizontes, a toda a Comunidade Cientifica.
Nota: inserimos, devidamente autorizados, um artigo de um seu
neto, Matthew Morgan, que ilustra bem a vida de um dos grandes obreiros desta
Ciência Multidisciplinar, que rasgou novos horizontes, a toda a Comunidade
Cientifica.
"RADIOPROTECÇÃO" Pag-12-13, Volume I, Números 6 e 7
(Dezembro de 1999 e Maio de 2000)
Karl Z. Morgan, CHP
Matthew Morgan, Grandson
Karl Z. (KZ) Morgan, certified health physicist, first
J17k.President of the Health Physics Society (HPS), and first Editor-in-Chief of
Health Physics, died 8 June 1999 at the age of 91 in Oak Ridge,
Tennessee, apparently of a ruptured aortic aneurysm. KZ was the founder of the
International Radiation Protection Association. He was also chairman for 20
years of the Internal Dose Committee of the International Commission on
Radiological Protection.
KZ was an early member of the top-secret Manhattan Project
that developed the first atomic bomb in World War II. He was transferred from
the University of Chicago in 1943 to work at what would become Oak Ridge
National Laboratory on the development of the bomb dropped over Hiroshima,
Japan.
He remained health physics director at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory for nearly three decades, from 1943 to 1972.
He was professor of nuclear engineering in the Department of
Nuclear Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1972 to 1982,
then became a consulting professor at Appalachian State University in Boone,
North Carolina.
In 1949, KZ organized the health physics fellowship programs
at Vanderbilt University and the University of Rochester, with many of these
programs extended to other universities. From 1950 to 1972, he commuted from Oak
Ridge to Vanderbilt and to the University of Tennessee, teaching courses in
health physics to fellowship students.
A native of Kannapolis, North Carolina, he received his
bachelor's and master's degrees in physics from the University of North Carolina
and his doctorate, also in physics, from Duke University. Before his work at the
Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago, he was Chairman of the Physics Department
at Lenoir Rhyne College in North Carolina. During this time he did research work
in cooperation with Duke University in the field of cosmic ray showers and meson
lifetimes.
For more details on KZ's distinguished career and photos of
him and his colleagues and of him and his wife Helen, see the June 1999 issue of
Health Physics, "A Tribute to Karl Z. Morgan." The issue was dedicated to
him because of "his contributions to the HPS, his profession and the success of
Health Physics."
KZ is survived by his wife Helen whom he met when he was a
professor at Lenoir Rhyne College, two sons, two daughters, three grandsons, and
one great grandson.
(Com permissão do Editor da Newsletter da HPS, Dr' Genevieve
S.Roessler)
13
"RADIOPROTECÇÃO" Pag-12-13, Volume I, Números 6 e 7
(Dezembro de 1999 e Maio de 2000)
