Seminar

Medical Physics Seminar – Monday, March 22, 2021

Critical Mass: Moving from Gender Equity to Racial Equity within Medical Physics

speaker

Julianne Pollard-Larkin, PhD
Associate Professor & Chief of Gastrointestinal and Thoracic Service, Department of Radiation Physics - Patient Care, Division of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Notably, Medical Physics has made great strides in increasing gender parity at the graduate school level when compared to Pure Physics programs and other STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields with nearly 42% of Medical PhD students classifying as women in 2017. However, the statistics on Medical Physics\' other indicators (ie. Racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, etc) of diversity are scant and leave room for improvement. This talk will help to explain if a \"pipeline problem\" truly exists in STEM and what it would take to make Medical Physics and other STEM fields more equitable with regards to racial/ethnic and gender.

Dr. Julianne Pollard-Larkin is an Associate Professor of Medical Physics at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. She is the Service Chief medical physicist in MD Anderson\'s Thoracic and GI Radiation Oncology Clinics. Dr. Pollard-Larkin also conducts clinical research and mentors and teaches Medical Physics residents and graduate students. Her primary research interests include pacemaker radiotherapy dose measurements and improving the efficacy of motion management in thoracic treatments and radiobiology. Julianne is also the Chair of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee.

She received her PhD in Biomedical Physics at UCLA and her B.S. in Physics and Mathematics at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fl. After receiving her PhD at UCLA, Julianne was accepted into the Medical Physics Residency program at MD Anderson in Houston, Tx. Following her residency, Julianne was hired by MD Anderson as faculty.

Beyond her role in the clinic and classroom, Julianne is a firm believer in outreach and increasing the pipeline of women and underrepresented populations in science. Ensuring that more underrepresented students and women follow in her footsteps is Julianne\'s passion.

Location:

Time: 4:00PM-5:00PM

Click here to view the recording of this seminar.