Presented to FRAZIER L. BRONSON at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society, Seattle, Washington, July 21-25, 1996
Frazier L. Bronson

The William A. McAdams Outstanding Service Award is presented each year by the American Board of Health Physics. Our purpose is to recognize those individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of professionalism and health physics certification. This award is named for the man who exercised strong and dedicated efforts to identify the need, define the concept, organize the body, obtain the charter, and implement the initial certification program.

The Award was established in 1989 in honor of one of the Board's founders, William McAdams. William McAdams provided leadership, energy, and vision to the Board during its formation. He was a member of the 1958 Certification Committee formed by the Health Physics society to investigate the need for a Board. He then served as the Chair of the inaugural Board when it was formed in October 1959. Today's recipient, as have past recipients of the Award has made similar noteworthy and significant contributions to the advancement of our profession and health physics certification.

The award was first presented in 1989 on the 30th anniversary of the ABHP. The seven previous recipients of the William McAdams Outstanding Service Award are:

Jack Healy - 1989 
H. Wade Patterson - 1990
Richard Bowers - 1991
Les Slaback - 1992 
Ken Skrable - 1993 
Lee Booth - 1994 
Bob Casey - 1995

Today, I am very pleased to announce that Frazier L. Bronson is the recipient of the eighth William A. McAdams Outstanding Service Award. In making this award, the Board recognizes Frazier Bronson for his continuing and dedicated efforts in advancing the profession of health physics through certification. Frazier's contributions to health physics certification include leadership through the period when a number of refinements to the process of developing the certification examination were proposed and implemented.

Frazier received his certification in health physics in 1973. Prior to becoming certified, he participated as an instructor in instrumentation for the Baltimore-Washington Chapter's ABHP Certification Exam Preparation course from 1968 to 1974. He also co-developed, co-directed, and taught a portion of the Delaware Valley Chapter's 20-week ABHP Certification Exam Preparation Course in 1973 and 1974. Frazier served on the original panel of the Continuing Education committee from 1977 to 1979; he also participated in the first ABHPO Role Delineation process. From 1985 to 1989, Frazier served as a Board Member of the ABHP, including two years as Secretary-Treasurer (1986-1987) and two years as Chair (1988-1989).

During Frazier's tenure on the board several important processes were developed and initiated to improve the quality and consistency of the certification exam. The following list contains many of these improvements:

  • Implemented the results of the Role Delineation as a basis for the subject matter of exam questions.
  • Increased the reliability of the examination process by subjecting potential questions to a formal review process and rating system.
  • Provided for multiple graders (first 3 ,and then 5) for each question.
  • Eliminated the oral examination option.
  • Developed uniform scoring guidance for graders.
  • Provided training session for Comprehensive and Power Reactor Panel members for better question development.
  • Implemented the ABHP Policy and Procedures Manual for Board and Panel operations.
  • Introduced a formal appeals process.
  • Created the Part I Panel as a separate entity.
  • Created the William McAdams Outstanding Service Award.
  • Introduced the first ABHP/AAHP topical session at the HPS annual meeting.
  • Participated in the formative years of the AAHP, especially as it related to the ABHP.

Frazier's closing comment on his ABHP tenure is indicative of his outlook, "Had a great time and worked with some really neat people."

Frazier has also compiled an impressive collection of accomplishments in job-related activities. He is currently Vice President, Applied Systems Development, Marketing Department at Canberra Nuclear. In this capacity he is responsible for technical development and marketing of applied spectroscopy products. Included are in-vivo counting hardware and software, low-level waste assay systems, in-situ gamma spectroscopy environmental assay units, dosimetry calculation software, mobile laboratories, and a wide variety of other products for specialized customer applications.

He has also served as HPS Representative to the ANSI N13 Full Committee (Radiation Protection) from 1967 to 1993. He has been a member of the ANSI N13.30 Working Group (Performance Criteria for Radiobioassay) from 1984 to the present time.

If you need to know anything about past operation of the ABHP, please consult the hallmark paper by Frazier, "The American Board of Health Physics: The First 35 Years," Health Physics 67:454-470, 1994.

Frazier exemplifies the professional ism and dedication to health physics and its practice. In appreciation and recognition of Frazier's many signification contributions to health physics certification and to the advancement of our profession, we take great pride in presenting the William McAdams Outstanding Service Award to him today.

Roger C. Brown, Chair ABHP Awards Committee, 1996 Vice Chair, ABHP 
Thomas E. Buhl, 1996 Chair, ABHP 
Carol D. Berger, 1996 Past President, AAHP