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Kuruvilla Verghese |
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Director of the Nuclear Reactor Program
Professor of Nuclear Engineering
office: 3105 Burlington Engineering Laboratories
phone: 919.515.3929
fax: 919.515.5115
e-mail: verghese@ncsu.edu
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| education: |
B.S. (Mechanical Engineering) 1958, Kerala University, India
M.S. (Nuclear Engineering) 1960, Iowa State University
Ph.D. (Nuclear Engineering) 1963, Iowa State University
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| research areas: |
Over the past thirty years, my research interests spanned a variety
of areas covering analysis of radiation measurement systems and their
applications. These included:
- radiotracer measurements and modeling of atomic diffusion in nuclear materials
- tracer studies of certain unit operations such as comminution
- development of nuclear methods for on-line analysis of coal by
capture gamma-ray spectrometry and for X-ray fluorescence analysis
- modeling of nuclear measurement systems for petroleum exploration
- exploratory investigations in computed tomography for industrial
non-destructive analysis Significant parts of these efforts were done
in collaboration with two of the NE faculty.
I am now directing my research capabilities to other areas. One broad
area that I am interested in is nuclear medicine. The following projects
pertain to my current interests:
Tracer Studies in Support of Biochemical Transport: Understanding
biological transport mechanisms of chemical agents (e.g., pharmaceuticals,
peptides, hormones) is vital to clinical medicine. One solution to such
problems is to use suitable radio-labeled agents and follow their transport
between biochemical and/or biophysical compartments through specific
measurement techniques. I am particularly interested in conducting such
studies on new boron and gadolinium compounds of potential use in neutron
capture therapy.
Improvements to Radiation Therapy for Malignancies: Radiation
therapy and treatment planning involve the use of beams of protons,
electrons, X-rays or gamma rays for delivering lethal dose to the malignant
cells. The problem is to devise appropriate filters, wedges, collimators
etc., as well as dose to the cancer while minimizing the dose delivered
to the surrounding healthy tissue. I am interested in potential improvements
to dose prediction software and to hardware design for the various modalities
of radiation treatment.
I also maintain interests in enhancements to the PULSTAR reactor experimental
facilities for various non-destructive analysis and testing. Additionally,
in collaboration with Prof. Murty, we propose to study possible improvements
to atomic displacement calculations in reactor materials for thermal
and epithermal neutrons.
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| publications: |
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