Obituary of Ronald L Brodzinski

Dr. Ronald L. Brodzinski, a long-time staff member of the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, passed away October 31, 2006. Ron was a Laboratory Fellow in the Radiation Detection and Nuclear Sciences Group at PNNL.

Ron had been with the Lab nearly 40 years, and in that time made significant technical contributions to the field of nuclear chemistry and physics. Ron’s entire 40-year career was spent developing radiological instrumentation, assay techniques, and applications thereof. He developed and deployed numerous radiation detection devices in a variety of field. Many of the applications required development of specialized radiochemical separations or methods.

Ron received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Chemistry from Purdue University in 1967 and immediately joined PNNL. In 1989 he attained the highest scientific level at PNNL, Laboratory Fellow. Ron was a long-time member of the American Chemical Society Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, and was active in nuclear chemistry his entire career.

Dr. Brodzinski’s early work centered on the physical interactions of fast neutrons with critical construction materials in thermonuclear reactors.

Ron was a Principal Investigator for NASA during the Apollo missions to the Moon. He developed a unique calibration technique for the whole-body counter used in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory to measure cosmic ray-induced radioactivities in returning astronauts. He also developed separation and concentration techniques for radioisotopes in biological samples to measure the astronauts whole-body radiation dose received while in space. A second part of the NASA Apollo program studies was dedicated to measuring radon concentration in the Lunar atmosphere and its motion as Lunar wind.

Another novel measurement was reconstruction of the radiation dose delivered by the Hiroshima bomb during World War II.

Ron also developed a unique radiation detection tool that used scintillating glass drawn into optical fibers to detect neutrons in a variety of applications that take advantage of the physical conformity of the glass fibers.

Ron’s greatest technical achievements were his developments for reducing backgrounds of radiation detection instruments to improve sensitivity, particularly for measuring double-beta decay. His 25-year search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in 76GE has resulted in background reductions of six orders of magnitude in high-resolution germanium gamma-ray spectrometers.

Ron also conceived and pioneered the use of pulse shape analysis and signal processing to identify source, type and location of energy deposition events in germanium detectors.

Ron’s detector advancements enabled him to make the first direct measurement of two-neutrino double-beta decay in 76GE, orders of magnitude longer than any previously measured radioisotope half-life. He also made the first direct measurement of the very rare two-neutrino double-beta decay of 100Mo.

He demonstrated a passion for doing research and established a record of excellence. Ron received both a Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer and an R&D 100 Award (from R&D Magazine) for his radiation detector developments. He was a prolific contributor to the scientific literature, authoring or co-authoring over 192 peer-reviewed publications and 120 formal technical reports.

Ron was a lifetime member of the Masonic Family including being a Senior DeMolay, past Worshipful Master, Past Grand Junior Deacon, 33 Degree, Inspector General Honorary Scottish Rite Mason, Member of the Royal Order of Scotland, and Member of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His Masonic family provided him the opportunity to be altruistic for the childhood language disorder foundation.

Ron is survived by his wife Jo Brodzinski; daughter, Belinda McNabb (Troy); son, Kirk Brodzinski; grandchildren, Amber Star McNabb, Erica Brodzinski, Sandra Downey, and Spencer Ryan Brodzinski. He was preceded in death by sons Frank Evan, Eric Vincent and Brett Ryan Brodzinski; parents Jean and Harry Brodzinski; grandson Walter Donald McNabb.