Profile
Health
Phys.
82 (supplement 2):S82-S83; 2002
George Hamawy is currently the Radiation
Safety
Officer at Columbia University in New
York City. His involvement with the nuclear and radiation fields spans
several decades. Born and
raised in Egypt, he had shown great interest in science from an early
age, and in the early 1960's
a small group of students was selected to be educated and trained
to launch Egypt into the
"Atomic Age." George was one of those fortunate few, and after an
intensive
five years of study at
the University of Alexandria, he earned his bachelor degree in Nuclear
Engineering. Following a
brief period working at the Egyptian Atomic Energy Commission, he
immigrated
to the United States at the age of twenty-three.
In New York City, he joined the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as a physicist to oversee the Center's nuclear pharmacy and radioisotope distribution system. While working at MSKCC, George went to graduate school on a part-time basis and earned an MS degree in Environmental Operational Radiation Safety Health Science from Hunter College of the City University of New York where he was awarded the Dean's Scholarship for outstanding achievement. In addition, he earned a second MS degree in Applied Science from a joint program offered by New York University and Cooper Union concentrating on energy production and its impact on the environment.
In 1984, The American Board of Science in Nuclear Medicine certified George in the specialties of Radiopharmaceuticals and Radiochemistry Science.
In the early 1990's, George joined the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx as the college's Radiation Safety Officer, and in 1995 he joined Columbia University in the same capacity.
Columbia University has two separate and independent radiation safety programs, one for the medical school and associated hospitals and another for the university. George is the RSO for the university, managing the radiation safety in a great variety of disciplines and applications such as basic sciences (biology, chemistry, physics), oceanography, astrophysics, particle physics, plasma physics and many other scientific specialties.
Columbia University had an extended and rich history in the nuclear fields going back to the early years of the "Manhattan Project" and housing scientific giants such as Urey, Szilard, Rabi, Fermi, and many others. Few remnants of this golden era are still in existence on campus.
One of George's dreams while growing up on the shores of the Mediterranean was becoming an oceanographer. This dream has been partially fulfilled, as a part of his responsibility is the overseeing of the use of radioactive materials at sea aboard Columbia's research ship RN Ewing.
George is an avid reader, spending most of his four-hour daily train
commute reading. The
subjects that he most enjoys are history, theology, and philosophy.
Email address is
gh81@columbia.edu.