Herbert M. Parker (13 April 1910,

Accrington Accrington is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, east of Preston, north of Manchester and is situated on the culverted River Hyndburn. Commonly abbreviated by locals to ...

– 5 March 1984, Richland, Washington) was an English, and American immigrant, medical physicist. He was a pioneer of medical radiation therapy and radiation safety, known for introducing the roentgen equivalent physical (rep), the forerunner of the gray and the

rad RAD or Rad may refer to: People * Robert Anthony Rad Dougall (born 1951), South African former racing driver * Rad Hourani, Canadian fashion designer and artist * Nickname of Leonardus Rad Kortenhorst (1886–1963), Dutch politician * Radley R ...

, and also the roentgen equivalent biological (reb), the forerunner of the

rem Rem or REM may refer to: Music * R.E.M., an American rock band * ''R.E.M.'' (EP), by Green * "R.E.M." (song), by Ariana Grande Organizations * La République En Marche!, a French centrist political party * Reichserziehungsministerium, in Nazi G ...

and the sievert.

Career

After receiving an M.S. in physics from the University of Manchester in 1931, Parker became a medical physicist at the

Christie Hospital The Christie Hospital in Manchester, England, is one of the largest cancer treatment centres in Europe. It is managed by The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital was established by a committee under the chairmanship of Richard Ch ...

and the Holt Radium Institute in Manchester. With James R. Paterson, he developed in 1932 the Paterson-Parker method, or Manchester System, for radiation therapy. The method allows physicians to use radium needles or tubes to maximize the radiation dose delivered to a cancerous tumour whilst minimizing the dose to healthy tissue. In 1938 Parker immigrated to the U.S.A. to begin work at the

Swedish Hospital Swedish Hospital (formerly Swedish Covenant Hospital) is a 312-bed nonprofit teaching hospital located on the north side of Chicago, Illinois. The hospital offers over 50 medical specialties, including neurosurgery for the spine and brain, integr ...

in Seattle, where he worked with the radiologist Simeon T. Cantril on Supervoltage Therapy research at the Tumor Institute. In 1942 Parker went to the University of Chicago to work on the Manhattan Project at the

Metallurgical Laboratory The Metallurgical Laboratory (or Met Lab) was a scientific laboratory at the University of Chicago that was established in February 1942 to study and use the newly discovered chemical element plutonium. It researched plutonium's chemistry and m ...

. In 1943 he went to Clinton Engineer Works to establish the health physics program for the U.S. atomic energy program. In 1944 Parker returned to the state of Washington to initiate the health physics program at the

Hanford Engineer Works The Hanford Engineer Works was a nuclear production complex established by the United States federal government in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II. The site, located at the Hanford Site on the Columbia River in Bento ...

. In 1947 he became manager of operations and research in radiological science. In 1956 he was promoted to become the overall manager at the Hanford Laboratories, holding this position until 1965 when operation of Hanford Laboratories was transferred from GE to

Battelle Memorial Institute Battelle Memorial Institute (more widely known as simply Battelle) is a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Battelle is a charitable trust organized as a nonprofit corporation u ...

. Working with James Ralston Kennedy Paterson, developed the Paterson-Parker rules for the ''Radium Dosage System'' also known as the Manchester system.

Honors

In 1978 Parker was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He was made a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1953 and of the British Institute of Physics. He received in 1955 the Janeway Medal of the

American Radium Society The American Radium Society is a medical association devoted to the study and treatment of cancer. It was founded in 1916. The Society's original mission was to further "the scientific study of radium in relation to its physical properties and the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Herbert M. 1910 births 1984 deaths 20th-century American physicists English physicists Alumni of the University of Manchester Manhattan Project people Health physicists Health Physics Society Medical physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society English emigrants to the United States People from Accrington