Amir Bahadori | Associate Professor
Hal and Mary Siegele Professorship in Engineering
Steve Hsu Keystone Research Scholar
Ph.D., 2012 - University of Florida
Biomedical Engineering
M.S., 2010 - University of Florida
Nuclear Engineering Sciences
B.S., 2008 - Kansas State University
Mechanical Engineering, Mathematics
Contact information
118 Ward Hall
785-370-1374 (work cell)
bahadori@k-state.edu
Radiological Engineering Analysis Laboratory
Professional experience
Amir Bahadori received bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering with a nuclear engineering option, and mathematics from Kansas State University in 2008. He then attended graduate school at the University of Florida, studying medical physics and earning a master's degree in 2010. Bahadori was awarded a NASA Graduate Student Research Program Fellowship in 2009, and in summer 2010 worked as an intern at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, or JSC, in the radiation health officer group. He accepted a full-time position as a NASA contractor in October 2010 and earned his Ph.D. degree from the University of Florida in December 2012. Bahadori became a NASA civil servant in January 2013 with the space radiation analysis group at NASA JSC. In his time there he substantially upgraded the tools used to calculate astronaut risk from medical exams involving ionizing radiation, coordinated astronaut radiation-risk reporting, led particle accelerator-based data collection and served as principal scientist for the advanced exploration systems rad works radiation environment monitor project. In December 2015 Bahadori joined the department of mechanical and nuclear engineering at K-State as an assistant professor and in March 2021 he was promoted to associate professor with tenure.
Research
Bahadori is the director of the Radiological Engineering Analysis Laboratory, or REAL, at K-State. His research is focused on the characterization of radiation environments, understanding the response of humans and electronics to radiation exposure using both experimental and computational techniques, and radiation imaging. Bahadori has collaborated with NASA researchers on advanced space radiation detection instruments for the Artemis missions and development of novel active-shielding architectures to enable long-term exploration missions to the moon and Mars. He has worked on several Department of Energy-funded projects through the Plant-Directed Research and Development Program at the Kansas City National Security Campus in Kansas City, Missouri. Since 2021, Bahadori and his team have been collaborating with internationally renowned radiation epidemiologists and dosimetrists on the Million Person Study to better understand the health effects of chronic exposure to ionizing radiation in the workplace.
The REAL is equipped with substantial computational resources, consisting of in-lab computers and dedicated resources on K-State's Beocat high-performance computing system. REAL researchers have priority access to more than 700 processor cores, eight Nvidia 1080Ti GPU cards and eight Nvidia 2080Ti GPU cards on Beocat. Bahadori and his team have deployed many software and code packages in parallel on Beocat including NASA’s HZETRN code, Geant4, PHITS and MCNP. Additionally, the REAL houses a LulzBot Taz 6 3D printer used for rapid prototyping and several radiation detectors for field characterization.
Research keywords
radiation protection, radiation transport, radiation dosimetry, space radiation, radiation risk, radiation effects on electronics, radiation imaging, bioheat transfer
Academic highlights
Bahadori, a Certified Health Physicist, teaches courses related to nuclear and radiological engineering, including NE 690, Radiation Protection and Shielding; NE 737, Intermediate Radiation Measurement Applications; and NE 691/891, Principles of/Advanced Radiation and Human Health. He has authored or co-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, including 12 NASA technical papers, with more than 1000 citations and an h-index of 15, according to Google Scholar. Bahadori has been granted two patents by the USPTO. He has presented at numerous meetings in the U.S. and abroad, including the Medipix Open Meeting at CERN, Workshop on Radiation Monitoring for the International Space Station, American Nuclear Society Annual and Winter Meetings, and meetings of the Nuclear Energy Institute and the World Nuclear Association. Bahadori was selected as a Big 12 faculty fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year. He was elected to a six-year term as a council member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) in 2024. Bahadori is a member of many professional societies, including American Nuclear Society, Radiation Research Society and the International Radiation Physics Association. He also maintains a USNRC senior reactor operator (SRO) license at the Kansas State University TRIGA Mark II Nuclear Reactor.