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OVERVIEW & PROGRAM GOALS

OVERVIEW - PhD PROGRAM -

To meet the ongoing demand of university hospitals, clinics, and industry for medical physicists trained in research and clinical medical physics, LSU's Department of Physics and Astronomy offers a Ph.D. degree in Physics with specialization in medical physics.  The Ph.D. degree program provides students a fundamental knowledge of physics and medical physics, advanced research training in a particular subfield of medical physics, and optionally, introductory clinical training. Students are required to fulfill the department’s requisites for the Ph.D. degree, which are summarized in the department’s “A Brief Guide to Graduate Studies in Physics and Astronomy.”

Students will spend their first year in the classroom completing the graduate physics core courses. The second year and a portion of the third year are spent completing comprehensive curricula in the fundamentals of medical physics, radiation biology, and radiation oncology. Subsequently, students are required to complete a dissertation based on hypothesis-driven research.  Full-time dissertation research should begin no later than the Summer semester of the third year and is expected to require approximately 3 years of study.  The results of the dissertation are expected to result in multiple publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. The program length will be approximately 6 years. However, for students entering with a M.S. in Physics, transferred courses should be able to meet all or part of the physics core requirement, shortening the expected program length to 5 years.

Students in the medical physics specialty have the opportunity to apply their medical physics knowledge to the clinic by taking practical courses in which they work side-by-side with medical physicists, medical dosimetrists, and radiation oncologists at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center. Clinical training is optional, as students pursuing a clinical career might select to complete more comprehensive clinical training through a medical physics residency program. Commencing 2014, in order to take the American Board of Radiology Part 1 examination in Radiologic Physics, candidates must be enrolled in or have completed a CAMPEP accredited residency program. (ABR October 13, 2007 Policy Statement)

OBJECTIVES - MEDICAL PHYSICS

The Ph.D. Program is designed for individuals who wish to be educated in medical physics with emphasis in research.  The Program’s objective is to provide a general knowledge of medical physics, research training in a particular subfield of medical physics, and optionally, clinical training in medical physics. The Ph.D. degree will give the student opportunity to prepare for

• Entry level research position, i.e., a junior faculty or postdoctoral fellow position in an academic medical physics department,
• Entry level professional medical physicist position, as either a medical physics resident or a junior medical physicist under the supervision of a board-certified medical physicist in a clinical environment, or
• Career as a medical physicist researcher in a clinical-support industry.

Updated: Fri, 21-Dec-2007 11:05 AM