Geoffrey G. Eichholz

Geoffrey Gunther Eichholz, an educational leader in health physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Eichholz played a key role in the successful establishment of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Health Physics. The Department has been a constant source of well-educated and well trained graduates in the field of nuclear engineering, health physics and medical physics. Professor Eichholz was involved at all levels of the educational ladder including leadership roles and participation in doctoral and masters committees.

Early life and times

Eichholz was born on 29 June 1920 in Hamburg, Germany to Max Eichholz and Adele “Daisy” née Elias. Dr. Max Eichholz was a lawyer and senior member of the Hamburg City Parliament and a well-known opponent of the Nazi party. As a result, after 1933, his father was severely persecuted and arrested multiple times. In 1943, Dr. Max Eichholz died at Auschwitz.

At the age of 18 during Kristallnacht the Nazis expelled him from Berlin Technical University and he was forced to leave his home country. Relatives in England offered him a place to stay.

Education and training

In 1938, Eichholz graduated from the Johanneum High School. He attended the Berlin Technical University for two partial semesters that ended on 9 November 1938 during Krystallnacht. He was expelled from the University and was fortunate to escape arrest after witnessing the destruction and burning of synagogues. Early in 1939 Eichholz was awarded a Refugee Scholarship from Harvard University effective in the following Fall semester. With this information, he was able to secure a transit visa to Great Britain where he could stay with relatives.

In March 1939, Eichholz arrived in England without any money to his name. He obtained a position as an unpaid research assistant in the physics department at Bristol University. A distant relative, David Eichholz, Professor in Classics at the University of Bristol set young Eichholz up with a position as an unpaid researcher for Professor Arthur Mannering Tyndall, Department of Physics. Eichholz worked for Cecil F. Powell scanning photographic emulsions. He worked alongside another refugee, Harald Rossi. In 1950, Powell would go on to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of pi mesons in these very same photographic emulsions.

In August 1939, war in Europe erupted and Eichholz was called into duty as a firewatch on top of the Physics tower. He was formally recognized as a Victim of Nazi Oppression. Due to the outbreak of war, the U.S. Consulate General refused to grant Eichholz a student visa. At this point Professor Tyndall arranged for Eichholz to be admitted to Bristol as a first-year honours student with tuition and fees waived. Eichholz was formally matriculated by Chancellor Winston Churchill. At Bristol, as an undergraduate student Eichholz had on occasion interacted with noteworthy scientists including: Walter Heitler, Herbert Fröhlich, Kurt Hoselitz and Hans Heitler. Finally in February 1940, Eichholz was reunited with his mother who had escaped from Germany one week before the War.

In May 1940, after the Battle of Dunkirk, all male refugee enemy aliens were interned. Eichholz spent the summer under canvas and was eventually transferred to the Isle of Man. In December 1940, he was released and rejoined his mother, now in Bradford, Yorkshire. A recommendation from Tyndall and an interview with Professor Edmund Clifton Stoner at the University of Leeds garnered Eichholz admittance to Leeds as a second year physics student in the midst of an accelerated wartime curriculum. In May 1942, he graduated with First-Class Honours in physics. James Chadwick was the external examiner. Eichholz was assigned to the Admiralty Signal Establishment, Witley, Surrey for work on radar development. The assignment involved work with microwaves and waveguides, state of the art technology at the time.

At the end of World War II, in January 1946, Eichholz returned to his studies at Leeds to complete his PhD.

Professor Stoner suggested the topic of Magnetic Resonances at Microwave Frequencies. The thesis in physics was completed in September 1947, passed the oral examination and scrutiny by the external examiner in Sheffield and the oral presentation was completed just prior to departing via ship to Canada.

Canada

In early 1947, Eichholz had replied to an advertisement in Nature for a faculty position at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and was offered the position of assistant professor, contingent upon completion of his PhD and becoming a British citizen. The conditions were met and so he began a long trip to Vancouver, with 5 days at sea, followed by 6 days by train across Canada.

Eichholz experienced culture shock as he encountered the change from wartime England to the immensity of Canada. At UBC Eichholz was assigned teaching duties with returning veterans as his primary student group. He had to establish laboratories and initiate research projects in nuclear physics. He became involved with ionizing radiation and radiation detection. A productive summer was spent at the AECL Chalk River Laboratories, and he witnessed the startup of the NRX Reactor. During his time off, he enjoyed sailing on the Ottawa River with W.B. Lewis. Lewis was known as the father of the CANDU nuclear reactor.

In 1951, Eichholz moved to Ottawa and accepted a position with the Canadian Bureau of Mines, as head of the Physics and Radiotracer Subdivision. The work focused on uranium assays of ores and minerals. Later projects involved development of novel radiation detectors and the utilization of radioisotopes in industry. Eichholz developed the first multiwire spark counter. Additional studies involved neutron activation analysis to determine the oxygen content in steel and the use of radiotracers in explosives and the steel industry.

Georgia Institute of Technology

In 1963, Eichholz was recruited by the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) for the position of Professor in the newly established graduate program in the School of Nuclear Engineering. He remained there for 25 years. At the time the program did not offer an undergraduate degree in nuclear engineering. By the end of the 1960s, a significant program in Health Physics was added. Eichholz developed additional courses for these programs that added to the breadth and depth of these specialties. He published or coauthored several books for these courses and they include: Radioisotope Engineering, Environmental Aspects of Nuclear Power, Nuclear Radiation Detection, and Radon. In 1975 Eichholz was named Regents’ Professor of Nuclear Engineering.

While at Georgia Tech, Eichholz maintained an active research program that encompassed laboratories in 4 different building on campus. Research focus areas included radiotracer utilization, irradiation effects, radon, and dosimetry. He devoted a great deal of effort to studies on the migration of radioactive material and pollutants through unsaturated soils.

In a somewhat unrelated field, he also taught a course on Architectural Acoustics in the College of Architecture for over 20 years.

Leisure activities

Pastimes include tennis, world affairs and historical genealogy. Lectured at Mercer Senior University on world affairs and historical genealogy. Dr. Eichholz enjoys world travel and has visited over 100 countries.

Professional Service

• Published over 130 reviews of technical books and publications
• National Academy of Science, advisory committee
• Savannah River Plant, Reactor safety advisory committee
• American Nuclear Society, charter member and fellow
• American Nuclear Society, Atlanta Section member and chairman
• Visiting lecturer in Mexico, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and South Africa
• IAEA, Regional Advisor on Isotope Utilization, South and East Asia

• Eichholz, G.G. (1969). Industrial Application of Isotopes: Report to the Governments of South and East Asia Countries. TA Report WA/5/431. International Atomic Energy Agency. Vienna, Austria.

Health Physics Society

• Associate Editor, Health Physics Journal
• National member and Fellow
• Dean of the 1993 Health Physics Society Summer School held at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, 5–9 July 1993.
• Atlanta Chapter member and chairman
• Atlanta Student Chapter advisor

Awards and honors

• Georgia Institute of Technology, Outstanding Teacher Award, 1973
• Georgia Institute of Technology, Geoffrey G. Eichholz Faculty Teaching Award, named in his honor, established in 2005.
• American Nuclear Society, fellow
• Health Physics Society, fellow
• Health Physics Society, Robley D. Evans Commemorative Medal, 2004.
• Health Physics Society, Geoffrey G. Eichholz Outstanding Science Teacher Award, named in his honor.

• http://issuu.com/gtalumni/docs/2008_84_3/2

Publications and selected works

Books, etc

• Radioisotope Engineering, Geoffrey G. Eichholz, Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1972.
• Evaluation of Treatment Plants by Tracer Methods, Geoffrey G. Eichholz, T.F. Craft, S.N. Millspaugh, US Atomic Energy, 1973.
• Environmental Aspects of Nuclear Power, Geoffrey G. Eichholz, Ann Arbor Science, 1976.
• Principles of Nuclear Radiation Detection, Geoffrey G. Eichholz, John W. Poston, Ann Arbor Science, 1979.
• Principles of Nuclear Radiation Detection Laboratory Manual, Geoffrey G. Eichholz, John W. Poston, Ann Arbor Science, 1980.
• Treatment of Gaseous Effluents at Nuclear Facilities, Walter Goossens, Geoffrey G. Eichholz, William Tedder, editors. Harwood Academic, 1991.
• Hospital Health Physics, Geoffrey G. Eichholz, Joseph J. Shonka (eds.), Research Enterprises, 1993.

Selected Citations

• Eichholz, Geoffrey G., and A. H. Bettens. Conductimetric Measurement and Control of Acid Concentration in Leach Pulps. Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, 1960.
• Keys, J. D., and Geoffrey G. Eichholz. "Measurement of the wear rate of cast grinding balls using radioactive tracers." Radioisotopes in the Physical Sciences and Industry. Proceedings of the Conference on the Use of Radioisotopes in the Physical Sciences and Industry. V. 1. 1962.
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Spark counter neutron detector for high temperature applications." (1966). G. G. Eichholz. (1952). The Rosenblum Spark Counter. Nucleonics. 10 (10):46-49.
• Craft, Thomas Fisher, and Geoffrey G. Eichholz. "Radiotracer studies on rapid sand filtration." (1967).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Radiation effects on textile waste solutions." (1970).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G., and C.J. Roberts. "Optimization of the design for environmental radiological surveillance systems for nuclear power plants." (1975).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Evaluation and design of low-level disposal sites." (1976).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Evaluation of decontamination methods for various surfaces." (1977).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G., and John W. Poston. "A cooperative effort in the field of health physics." (1978).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Mobility of radioactive waste materials in subsurface migration by particulate transport." (1979).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Radionuclide migration by colloidal particulate transport." (1980).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Fixation and remobilization of radioactive waste materials in near-surface repositories." (1980).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "An analysis of the fixation and remobilization of radioactive waste materials in near-surface repositories." (1982).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Develop transport model for radionuclide migration in the SRP lysimeters." (1983).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Sewage irradiation studies." (1983).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Transport model for radionuclide migration in the SRP lysimeters." (1984).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Environmental impact of buried metallic mercury." (1985).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Bioassay action levels for selected radionuclides." (1988).
• Eichholz, Geoffrey G. "Dose-rate dependence of thermoluminescent dosimeters." (1988).