Faculty note: Professors McIntire and Luczaj journal publication
UW-Green Bay’s Michael McIntire (Associate Professor, Chemistry) and John Luczaj (Professor, Geoscience) had an article published in the journal J (MDPI, Switzerland). The article, “Chernobyl’s Lesser Known Design Flaw: The Chernobyl Liquidator Medal—An Educational Essay” was published on August 9, 2019 and is available online.
Chernobyl Liquidator Medal design analysis.
The article presents a mathematical analysis of the famous Chernobyl Liquidator Medal, which was awarded to workers who cleaned up the region after the radiological disaster in 1986. The authors note how “This article documents the unfortunate misrepresentation of a famous scientific experiment on an honorary medal and illustrates the importance of better communication between artists and scientists.” Luczaj discovered the medal’s error while teaching the UWGB course “Radioactivity: Past, Present, and Future”, at which point he sought out the expertise of McIntire who conducted the mathematical modeling and analysis of the radiation pathways depicted on the medal.
