Biographies of Representatives and Alternates

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Australia

Representative

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Gillian Hirth (Past chair of the Committee)

Dr. Gillian Hirth was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) in March 2022, after serving for almost six years as Head, Radiation Health Services (RHS) Branch of ARPANSA and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of ARPANSA.

Dr. Hirth completed a PhD in environmental radiochemistry in 1999 and from 2000 to 2003 she was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. Her research focussed on the transport of uranium decay series in the environment and their transfer to the biota.

Dr. Hirth worked for the Australian Defence Organisation from 2003 to 2010 in the field of hazardous materials and environmental management, this work included the management of radiation sources and facilities, nuclear materials, occupational exposures and waste across the organisation. She has been with ARPANSA since 2010 initially working in codes and standards development she then led a project examining radionuclide activity concentration ratios in wildlife inhabiting uranium mining environments and was Director of the Monitoring and Emergency Response Section in RHS Branch from 2014 to August 2016.

Dr. Hirth worked on the OECD/NEA Expert Group on Radiological Protection Science (EGRPS). She was the Australian representative on the IAEA's Emergency Preparedness & Response Safety Standards Committee (EPReSC) for the term 2015-2017.

Dr. Hirth is member of the International Commission on Radiological Protection Committee 4 for the term 2017-2021, and is a member of the Board of Council of the International Union of Radioecology.

Dr. Hirth joined the Australian delegation in 2013, was alternate representative from 2014 to 2016 and is the Australian Representative since the sixty-fourth session in 2017.

Alternate Representative

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Cameron Lawrence

Dr. Cameron Lawrence is the Assistant Director for Public and Occupational Exposure in the Radiation Health Services Branch of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), a role he has held since joining ARPANSA in 2016.

Dr. Lawrence completed his PhD. in Environmental Radioactivity in 2005 with a focus on radon exhalation and the deposition of its progeny in a tropical environment. After completion of his PhD, he entered industry first working with Energy Resources of Australia (Rio Tinto) as a Radiation Advisor at their Ranger Uranium Mine (2005 – 2007) then with Broken Hill Proprietary's at their Olympic Dam copper, uranium, gold and silver mine and processing plant as the Superintendent of Radiation and Occupational Hygiene (2007 – 2012) where he also qualified as an Occupational Hygienist. He worked for Australia’s largest aluminium smelter, Boyne Smelters, operated by Rio Tinto, as a Health and Hygiene Specialist (2012 – 2016).

Dr. Lawrence has participated in a range of IAEA missions relating to occupational exposure and the mining and milling of uranium and was a co-author of the IAEA Safety Report Series No. 100 Occupational Radiation Protection in the Uranium Mining and Processing Industry. Dr. Lawrence is currently the Australian alternative member for the IAEA Transport Safety Standards Advisory Committee (TRANSSC).

Dr. Lawrence has been a member of the Australian delegation for UNSCEAR since in 2016 where he contributed as a member of the Expert Group on Occupational Exposure for the UNSCEAR 2020/2021 Report, Annex D Evaluation of occupational exposure to ionizing radiation. He is currently a lead writer for UNSCEAR’s evaluation on public exposure from ioniing radiation.