Radiological Sciences Training Grant

Goals

The Radiological Sciences Training Grant supports Ph.D. and postdoctoral research related to cancer. The goal of this training program is to prepare physicists and engineers for research careers in radiological physics and dosimetry as well as in functional, anatomical, and interventional medical imaging as it applies to the detection and treatment of cancer.

Faculty trainers in this program are committed to excellence in research broadly applied to cancer treatment, diagnosis, and prevention. We take a multi-disciplinary approach that is strongly image-science based and is increasingly molecular-focused. Trainees are immersed in this comprehensive research environment. Research training is available in every major area of physics involved with cancer treatment and diagnosis, cancer biology, and in emerging areas of molecular imaging.

Administration

Principal Investigator: Timothy Hall, Ph.D.

Administrator: John Vetter, Ph.D.

Appointments

The Radiological Sciences Training grant supports 10 predoctoral trainees and 3 postdoctoral trainees. About 4-5 training grant openings are filled each year to replace individuals rotating off because of graduation or completion of training. Nominations for training grant positions are made by either the student's advisor or the faculty advisor/sponsor in the case of postdoctoral nominations. Nominations include a description of the area of research, the cancer relevance, and an agreement that the student will fulfill the requirements of the training grant, detailed below. In most cases students must have reached dissertator status to be considered for a training grant position. To assure that a broad research area is included amongst trainees, faculty members will generally not have more than one advisee on the grant.

Appointment Requirements include the following:

• Thesis research must be focused on the broad area of diagnosis, treatment, or treatment monitoring of cancer
• Trainees must have had, or be enrolled in, a course in cancer biology
• Trainees must have had, or be enrolled in, a course in research ethics training
• Trainees must participate in the annual Radiological Physics Training Grant symposium; in addition, trainees must prepare a progress report each spring.
• Authors of papers and theses must acknowledge partial support of the training grant in their publications
• Appointments cannot exceed 5 years for predoctoral trainees and 3 years for postdoctoral trainees. Because of previous courses taken and research work completed, most predoctoral dissertators complete their work in 2 years.
• Postdoctoral training includes preparing a K-series or an R series NIH grant application

A list of training grants throughout the university can be found here.

Current Trainees and their Projects

Postdocs

Pre-docs