Steve McLaughlin: You know,
if there's a—
if there's a technology or area
that generates all kinds
of really strong opinions,
positive and negatives:
You're saving humanity,
you're killing humanity,
you know, nuclear energy,
nuclear power, nuclear weapons,
nuclear nonproliferation—
all of those—
you're right
in the middle of all that.
So how did you—how
did you decide
that that was the area
you wanted to study
and make your life's—at least
your life's work about it?
Anna Erickson: Well, first of
all my life is never boring.
Thank you to the field
that chose me.
So I think the question
is how did I decide.
I think that was decided
for me
because I saw no other field
that would be so interesting
and so diverse
in its application.
I still remember reading about
Chernobyl when I was a kid.
This was a fascinating area
for me from childhood.
And I know how cliché
that sounds,
but it's so true
that nuclear technology
is one of the most diverse
and controversial subjects.
And just think of the breadth
of that field
from we started as
a nuclear weapon field, right?
That's the inception point,
but today the human lives
that are saved
because of radiation
cannot be counted.
A recent example
is Proton Center here,
right here at Emory,
that is designed
to save human lives
and to make the treatment
much safer
than it could be
with other technologies.
