Ph.D. student Amy Weisman shares her experiences defending her thesis during the epidemic.
Department of Medical Physics
Medical Physics was established as a specialty focus within the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, creating the first and only basic science department of its kind in the country. This research intensive department has approximately 30 core faculty and 30 affiliate faculty members, many with cross or affiliate appointments in one or more clinical departments, including Radiology, Human Oncology, Psychiatry, and Medicine. Several faculty also have cross appointments in the School of Engineering, through Biomedical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. Work in the department ranges from basic discovery and invention, through to research products and methods production, to clinical trials and industry collaboration and translation.
With an incoming class of 10-15 PhD students per year, the department has the largest cohort of doctoral students within Medical Physics in the country, and trains a smaller MS cohort in Medical Physics and Health Physics. The didactic training includes an extensive set of courses in Diagnostic and Therapeutic systems, which guide the student towards their accredited degree from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Educational Programs (CAMPEP). In the decades since formation, department alumni have gone on to lead many institutions throughout the country in aspects of Medical Physics.
Message from the Chair
Brian Pogue, Ph.D.
Department Chair
Welcome! The University of Wisconsin-Madison houses the one-and-only university based Department for Medical Physics in the country, with research and education programs that have created our discipline. The department is part of the School of Medicine and Public Health, and is physically located on the 1st floor of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research, adjacent to UW Hospital and the Health Sciences Learning Center, on the western edge of the campus. The facilities are a premier example of leading edge research and development, where academic scholarship is carried out side by side with clinical physics, and research translation to both clinical trials and industry translation. The department faculty provide mentorship in the latest advances in imaging and therapy systems, devices and software. The department provides a premier experience for any aspiring physicist, with both didactic training and research based mentorship, with leading postdoctoral fellow training, and imaging physics residency opportunity. Our faculty lead research that is broadly focused across all physics-based aspects of imaging and therapy, where disease diagnoses, acute treatments and human health can be improved. The discoveries in the program improve our ability to non-invasively diagnose or characterize disease at the earliest stages possible, and develop, guide and assess therapeutic interventions. Our invention and discovery based work is carried out side-by-side with clinical colleagues, as we advance state-of-the-art in patient care. The translation of our inventions lead to startup industry ventures and the creation of new tools by large and small companies, adding to both improvements in the local economy as well as better healthcare technology for the population. Medical physics is a very special field, which allows technical specialists to advance human health, and Madison is the place that started the trend and continues to lead the way forward today!
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In the Spotlight
Amy Weisman
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