Chemist and Lab Manager National Monitoring Section
Radiation Protection Bureau
Health Canada
Ottawa, Ontario

Dr. Michael Cooke is a chemist and lab manager in the National Monitoring Section of Health Canada’s Radiation Protection Bureau in Ottawa, ON. His role in the InFORM project is to perform the gamma spectrometric analysis of the salmon and other biota samples. He is excited to work on the project as one of the many contributors to an accurate assessment of the risk Canadians face as a result of the Fukushima disaster and he hopes that this work will lead to a better understanding of the transport and ultimate fate of radionuclides in the environment. Dr. Cooke hopes that the public will come to understand natural radiation in the environment so they may have a better reference frame to evaluate the effect of events such as the Fukushima disaster.

Michael was motivated to become a scientist at an early age thanks to inspiration from his father, who is also a scientist. His experiences in the field have helped feed an innate curiosity that he has about the world surrounding him and also fulfil his desire to make a positive contribution to society. When he’s not putting salmon into the spectrometer, he can be found playing with his two daughters, ages 5 and 7, weight lifting at the gym, gardening, or reading.