NCRP

KATHRYN D. HELD

KATHRYN D. HELD

Held K

became President of the NCRP in January 2019. She held the position of Executive Director and Chief Science Officer from 2016 to 2018. She was first elected to the Council in 2006 and served on the NCRP Board of Directors from 2008 to 2014. She was Vice President from 2011 to 2016 of Program Area Committee 1 on Basic Criteria, Epidemiology, Radiobiology, and Risk. She also served as Chair of the Program Committee for the 2011 Annual Meeting on “Scientific and Policy Challenges of Particle Radiations in Medical Therapy and Space Missions.” Dr. Held was a member of Scientific Committee (SC) 1-22 on Radiation Protection for Astronauts in Short-Term Missions and Phase I of SC 1-24 on Radiation Exposures in Space and the Potential of Central Nervous System Effects and an advisor to several NCRP committees.

Dr. Held is an Associate Radiation Biologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology (Radiation Biology) at Harvard Medical School (HMS). At MGH, Dr. Held leads a team that is involved in research on molecular mechanisms for the induction of bystander effects by high energy particles in cells and tissues, characterization of charged particle beam induced DNA damage responses and cell killing, development of a cancer screening platform for personalized radiation medicine, and mechanisms for regulation of DNA damage response by cell-cell communication. Dr. Held also teaches radiation biology to radiation oncology medical and physics residents and graduate students at MGH/HMS and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Held earned her PhD in biology from the University of Texas, Austin. She has served on review panels for numerous federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command programs and other organizations such as the Radiological Society of North America. She is on the Editorial Boards of Radiation Research and the International Journal of Radiation Biology, and has served on committees for the National Academy of Science/National Research Council, NASA, and the American Society of Radiation Oncology. She is a past President of the Radiation Research Society.