A radiation workforce of sufficient size and capacity is necessary to meet our nation’s current and future needs for energy production, health care, and other vital areas. Over the long term, workforce shortages have the potential to compromise our nation’s capabilities in these strategic sectors and, if sustained, would result in degradation of economic competitiveness and national security. In 2015,a multidisciplinary team began reviewing a selection of professional radiation workforces in the United States with the goal of developing a resource that would contain information of relevance to employers, policy makers, educational institutions, students contemplating radiation-related careers, and the public. This approach was taken because ionizing radiation is used for a wide array of applications, and these frequently involve multidisciplinary teams. Indeed, the various radiation disciplines comprise a synergistic ecosystem,with many interdependencies,and this motivated us to review disciplines individually, as well as in the context of the larger multidisciplinary ecosystem. The team members were drawn from those professions that are chiefly responsible for the radiation protection of workers, patients, and the public: health physics, medical physics, medicine (including diagnostic radiology, interventional radiology, nuclear medicine, and radiation oncology), nuclear engineering, radiation biology, and radiochemistry and nuclear chemistry. Due to practical considerations, this selection was limited; nonetheless, the authors emphasize the importance of other worker cohorts, including technologists who work in medical radiation therapy and imaging, and radiation epidemiologists and ecologists, who draw on the basic sciences of physics, chemistry, mathematics, and biology and play a significant role in radiation protection. It is hoped that these and other groups will be considered in future works. The methods used to prepare this review included surveying relevant information on each workforce,using data from the literature and other resources, such as information from professional societies. All data were evaluated by teams of subject matter experts, comprised of leaders in each of the respective professions. However, it must be emphasized that some of the professions have few to no means of surveilling their

, medicine, nuclear engineering, radiation biology, and radiation and nuclear chemistry. Chapters 2 through 7 of this special issue review the characteristics of each profession and its workforce, as well as recommending actions to ensure their future adequacy to meet the nation’s needs.

Radiation protection is foundational to harnessing the societal benefits of radiation in nuclear energy, security, and medicine applications. Significant challenges in radiation protection remain unaddressed for the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear medicine, emergency response, national defense, and space exploration, as the United States is lacking a coherent research strategy prioritizing radiation protection mission needs and gaps in scientific knowledge to meet these needs. Research and development in the field of radiation protection calls for cooperation among governmental agencies, emergency responders, research organizations, and the academic community. Amidst atrophying national expertise in radiation protection, the Radiation Protection Research Needs Workshop was spearheaded by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Health Physics Society. This workshop facilitated critical dialogue among radiation stakeholders in the governmental and scientific communities, including national laboratories, academic institutions, and industry partners. The workshop featured presentations representing 12 federal agencies and breakout sessions involving the identification of scientific drivers by subject matter experts in each of the following areas: new fuel cycles/reactors, dosimetry, medical physics, instrumentation and operations, decontamination and decommissioning, space radiation, national defense, emergency response, environmental modeling, and low-dose effects. The goal of this workshop was to seek stakeholder input toward the development of a national strategic research agenda in the field of radiation protection. Consequently, the Health Physics Society has established a Special Task Force on Health Physics Research Needs, tasked with the prioritization of scientific drivers in radiation protection for the development of a national strategic research agenda.