Monday, May 10, 2010

Origins of Radioactive Girl part deux


10 May 2010
Last time I told you about the alleged origins of health physicists. The origins of Radioactive Girl are not shrouded in quite the mystery. In the late 1990's, I was a mild-mannered lake biologist, working for the University of South Florida and Hillsborough County on a collaborative website called the "Hillsborough County Lake Atlas."
When I called about the position, 'Lake Atlas biologist wanted,' I asked where Lake Atlas was. The boss found this humorous, but hired me anyway. Their biologist(one of two) had quit after just one day on the job. I was a better fit- what was not to love? I got to go to work in my bathing suit, use interesting technology that I'd never tried before, and jump in and out of lakes all day, then write about it all online. It was in many ways my dream job. It was also part time and temporary. When the job ended, I was moping about the office lamenting about my impending unemployment. No doubt tired of my whining, my administrative assistant asked, "How about being a Health Physicist? The University is looking for one."
"Let me see," I said, and hopped on a computer to Google Health Physicist. As it turns out, the university particularly liked biologists as health physicists, because most of the research labs using radioisotopes were in Biology or Medicine. The University was hiring for two positions; I got one. Reyes, a former medical student, got the other. Thus my career as Radioactive Girl was born. I was given a meter- a Ludlum 2401-P pocket-sized, handheld GM detector (above), but no super powers. Yet! Nighty-night,
-Radioactive Girl 2010

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