Bahadori named to National Academies committee studying radiation exposure in airline flight crews
Amir Bahadori, professor and nuclear engineering program director in the Alan Levin Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, has been selected to serve on an ad hoc National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee to study radiation exposure among commercial airline flight crew members.
Radiation exposure at aircraft altitudes is elevated because of cosmic ray interactions in Earth's atmosphere. While this is a minor source of exposure for most airline passengers, flight crew members can accrue substantial levels over time because of the amount of time they spend in the air.
The congressionally directed consensus study, sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration, will investigate existing data and published literature, evaluate models used to estimate in-flight radiation exposure and health risks, and determine worst-case radiation exposure on high-altitude flights. The committee will also identify knowledge gaps, assess limitations of related epidemiological studies and consider mitigation measures to reduce radiation exposure to flight crew members. A brief report will recommend strategies for predicting, assessing, and mitigating radiation exposure and related health effects.
Bahadori brings deep expertise to the committee through his leadership of K-State's Radiological Engineering Analysis Laboratory and the Institute for Radiation Health Studies. His research focuses on characterizing radiation environments and understanding how humans and electronics respond to radiation exposure.
Before joining K-State in 2015, Bahadori worked as a NASA civil servant with the Space Radiation Analysis Group at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, where he advanced tools to assess astronaut radiation risks. He was promoted to professor in 2025 and has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and two U.S. patents.
Details on the committee's work are available on the National Academies website.