K-12 Classroom Investigations: Exploring Background Radiation

Candace has been a STEM educator for more than 30 years, including at Penn State University, where she was most recently Assistant Director for Education and Outreach and Coordinator of the Gamma Irradiation facility at the Penn State Radiation Science and Engineering Center. She was the first woman to be licensed as a Senior Reactor Operator on the university’s TRIGA Mark III Reactor.

Candace joined Penn State in the Energy Technology Projects group in the Nuclear Engineering Department, where she developed programs and presentations on energy, nuclear technology, radon, and radioactive waste. She began developing teacher training programs as a member of the Penn State Nuclear Concepts and Technological Issues Institute. Originally a Pennsylvania-based program, the institute expanded to include science educators from the US and abroad. She has also conducted educational workshops for the Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP) and Penn State's Center for Science and the Schools (CSATs).

Candace has conducted numerous courses and workshops for professionals, educators, and students of all ages through volunteer activity with many organizations, including the American Nuclear Society (ANS). Because of her extensive volunteer work for ANS, she received the Landis Public Communication and Education Award in 2012 and has been awarded three presidential citations. She is also involved with the American Association of University Women, American Association of Physics Teachers, Graduate Women in Science, Women in Nuclear and the Society for Women Engineers. Candace has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a Master of Engineering (M. Eng) in Environmental Engineering.

Mary Lou is the associate dean of the Idaho State University (ISU) College of Science and Engineering, associate professor of nuclear engineering, and a senior reactor operator at ISU’s Aerojet-General Nucleonics nuclear reactor, commonly known as the AGN-201. Presently, she coordinates the nuclear engineering curriculum at ISU and teaches core graduate and undergraduate courses. She also performs nuclear materials research and is involved in regional and discipline accreditations, ISU’s international program development, and reactor administration.

Mary Lou has published internationally and is recognized as principal investigator of productive research projects incorporating nuclear material irradiation and characterization and the associated management of radioactive material.

She has collaborated on a variety of projects and proposals in university, national laboratory, and international research environments. This includes her work as a joint appointee scientist at Idaho National Laboratory where she led the Simulation Institute for Nuclear Enterprise Modeling and Analysis fuel-cycle modeling project. She also worked at Argonne National Lab with various duties associated with pyroprocessing spent fuel and was also a high school science and math teacher in the U.S. and U.K.

Mary Lou has a B.S. in chemistry from Cedar Crest College and received an M.S. in environmental engineering along with her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear fuels and materials development, spent fuel processing, and waste form development.

An ANS member since 1992, Mary Lou was on the ANS Board of Directors from 1996-1999. She is a member of the Accreditation Policy & Procedures Committee; Development Committee; Fuel Cycle and Waste Management Division; Education, Training and Workforce Development Division; the Special Committee on Government Relations; and is the faculty advisor for the ANS Idaho State University Student Section. She is an active member of the Idaho ANS Local Section and has served on numerous organizing committees for local and national meetings.

In 2011 and 2014, she received ANS Presidential Citations and the Landis Public Communication and Education Award in 2014.