Dr Nobuhiko Ban

Nobuhiko Ban received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in health sciences from the University of Tokyo. Following five years of work on individual radiation monitoring at Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation, he returned to the University of Tokyo as a research associate and obtained PhD in Medical Science. After serving as a faculty member at Oita University of Nursing and Health Sciences (1998–2011) and Tokyo Healthcare University (2011–2015), he has been involved in regulations on nuclear and radiation safety as a commissioner of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, Japan.
Dr Ban covers a range of topics related to radiation exposure and its health effects. He conducted researches on radiation damage to mouse hematopoietic cells in the context of leukemogenesis. Efforts were made to integrate experiments and modelling to get an insight into the mechanism of radiation-induced leukaemia. He has been also interested in dose and risk assessment of radiation exposure in medicine.
In addition to the research work, Dr Ban has a long career in education and training about radiation risk and radiological protection. His commitment extends to various parties, such as university students, medical personnel, nuclear workers, local officials and police officers. He was also involved in risk communication activities following the accident of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station. They include the chairperson of Steering Committee for the Question and Answer Website of Japan Health Physics Society, which dealt with a total of 1870 questions from the public in three years.
Dr Ban served as a member of Japanese delegation to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) from 2010 to 2015. He became a member of Committee 1 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) in 2013 and has been working for Committee 4 since 2017. His activities in ICRP include the chair of Task Group 102 on Radiation Detriment Calculation Methodology. He has been the chair of the Working Group on Safety Culture of the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities, the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD/NEA) since 2017.