2009 News
News items are listed in reverse chronological order within each year. See links above for other years. Also check us out on Facebook!
10/5/2009 - Program members win Cancer Center awards
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Congratulations to Taoran Li, PhD student, who received the Citizens Advisory Council Outstanding Poster Award at the 2009 Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center Annual Meeting [ext. link]. Taoran is first from the left in the top row in the accompanying picture. He is advised by program faculty Jackie Wu PhD. Several other program faculty members were also involved in the meeting. Faculty member David Kirsch MD PhD was the mentor of Rebecca Dodd PhD, recipient of the Citizen’s Advisory Council Outstanding Oral Presentation Award. Faculty member Mark Oldham PhD mentored Alvin Cabrera MD, who was a winner of the Citizens Advisory Council Poster Prize. Finally, faculty member Zeljko Vujaskovic MD MPH won the R. Wayne Rundles Award for Excellence in Cancer Research. This award is presented to a Duke investigator whose research has made an important contribution to the detection, treatment, or prevention of cancer. (Picture credit: Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center website.) |
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9/6/2009 - Open house announced for 10/15/2009
The Duke University Medical Physics Graduate Program is pleased to announce its open house for prospective graduate students on Thursday Oct 15, 2009, from 9:30 AM - 6:30 PM.
You are invited to attend to learn more about the program, specifically you may:
* Visit departments and labs
* Talk with faculty and students
* Learn about financial aid and scholarships
* Tour the campus
* Have dinner and socialize with Medical Physics students
The open house will take place in the medical physics program space, 2424 Erwin Rd, Hock Plaza, Suite 101, Durham NC 27705.
Contact for RSVP: Dr. Olga Baranova,olga.baranova@duke.edu.
Download the flyer for this event.
8/24/2009 - Welcome to New Class
This fall marks the matriculation of our program's 5th class, comprised of 8 M.S. and 5 Ph.D. students. We congratulate the Ph.D. students who received special fellowships: Baiyu Chen was awarded the Carestream Fellowship, Laurie Cumberbatch received the Dean's Graduate Fellowship, and Steve Mann received the NIH Training Grant Fellowship and the James B. Duke Fellowship.
8/24/2009 - Fall 2009 Schedule Classes for the fall semester begin today. For this fall, we offer the following courses listed below by course number, title, and instructor:
Jeffrey Siewerdsen, |
In announcing this fall's Seminars in Medical Physics schedule, co-instructor Joseph Lo said, "This will be our 9th consecutive semester as part of the program... These weekly gatherings showcase cutting edge research, panel debates on hot topics in the field, overviews of special topics not covered in core courses such as biostatistics and frontiers in medical science, previews/reviews of conference talks, and small group workshops on medical physics as a profession. Every semester includes talks from clinicians, clinical physicists, and notable visiting faculty invited especially for this seminar. We will kick off the fall with our Doctoral Research Showcase, which was very well received last year. Our invited speaker is Jeff Siewerdsen from Hopkins (picture on left), who will share his latest research bridging the gap between radiology and radiation oncology. Other notable physics speakers include Ron Jaszczak, Al Johnson, Tim Turkington, Gina Tourassi, Joe Izatt, and Shiva Das. We have 3 separate sessions devoted to clinical interests. Ehsan Samei will offer our first ever showcase of clinical imaging physics, while Rendon Nelson and David Kirsch will present their clinical research. We will devote a seminar to this year's MS Summer Research Scholarship recipients, who are Adam Brooks, Kelly McGrady, Michael Pierquet, and Scott Senick. Mark Oldham will also moderate an AAPM reprise session featuring 4 Duke speakers: Jim Chang, Sua Yoo, Quiwen Wu, and Andrew Thomas." |
8/20/2009 - Doctorate of Medical Physics (DMP) Survey Results
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Check out the results from the National Opinion Survey on Doctorate of Medical Physics Degree Program, a major national effort which was initiated by our students. The survey contacted over 1100 students, residents, faculty, and directors, and received an unprecedented 52% response rate! You can view the final report in a Powerpoint format along with verbatim comments at the above website. Integral players included program director Jim Dobbins and director of graduate studies Ehsan Samei, who are also co-chairs of the Society of Directors of Academic Medical Physics Programs (SDAMPP), and members of our Student Advisory Board: Vorakarn Chanyavanich, Ashley Manzoor, Latoya Crayton, Irina Vergalasova, Lauren Courlas, Adam Brooks, and Paco Robles. In an email to program members, Dr Samei said, "I am particularly proud of the fact that the survey was initiated by our students at Duke. Here is an example of how something that was started here has reached national prominence and exposure." | 
"How will the DMP program affect the medical physics profession?" |
5/10/2009 - Commencement 2009 and Awards
Congratulations and good luck to our fourth MS class which graduated today. As noted in the previous news entry, Lei Ren also became our first ever PhD graduate. The full list of graduates is shown in the table below.
Name Degree Advisor Thesis/Scholarship Title
Maryann Ozidu Abogunde MS T. Yoshizumi Thesis: Small Animal Dosimetry in Cesium-137 and Orthovoltage X-ray Irradiators
William Edwin Brown MS M. Oldham Thesis: Verification of Advanced Gating Techniques using novel 4D Dosimeter
Corey Gray Clift MS M. Oldham Thesis: Application of a novel 3D Dosimetry Technique to the Investigation of Small Photon Fields
Adam I Cohen MS T. Turkington Thesis: Data Driven Respiratory Gating in 2D PET
Latoya Geneen Crayton MS J. Wu Thesis: Analysis of patient motion in head and neck image-guided radiation therapy
Ryan Miller Davis MS M. Dewhirst Thesis: Simultaneous Monitoring of Temperature Sensitive Liposome Content Release and Tumor Temperature with MRI.
William Michael Giles MS J. Bowsher Thesis: Timing and Communications for a Synchronous Dual X-Ray System
D'Vone Jackson MS
M. Tornai Project: Fully 3D Breast Dosimetry Using a Dedicated Breast CT System
Sherry Allison Leeper MS S. Yoo Thesis: Evaluation of In-Room Cone-beam CT Imaging Techniques Compared to CT for Dose Calculation
Brandon Cole Mader MS M. Oldham Thesis: Advantages of Patient-based margin definition for dosimetry in the presence of cervical motion
Jessica Lee Nute MS T. Turkington Thesis: Reliability of measurements of change in PET SUV
Jason Paisley MS T. Yoshizumi Thesis: Comparative Study of Interal Dose Asessment between Whole Body Counter and Gamma camera
Christopher John Veale MS Zh. Wang Thesis: Amplitude gated Breath-Hold Treatment for Heart Dose Reduction in Left Breast Cancer Patients: Residual Motion and Breath-Hold Threshold
Nagabindu Vulli MS S. Das Thesis: Effect of fluence map smoothness on the deliverability of Head-Neck tumors designed on Eclipse
Tian Zhang MS Zh. Wang Thesis: Comparison of ITV-based and Amplitude-gated Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) for Lung Cancers
Lei Ren PhD F.-F. Yin "Dissertation: DTS for image guided
radiation therapy"
In addition, congratulations also go to the following award recipients for this year. Awards are given out during the program's private ceremony during commencement weekend.
Director’s Award for Exemplary Service
Terry Yoshizumi, Mark Oldham, Haijun Song, Sherry Leeper, Vorakarn Chanyavanich, Ross McGurk, Francisco Robles
Excellence in Research Award for MS Student
Maryann Abogunde
Excellence in Research Award for PhD Student
Xiang Li
Excellence in Teaching Award (based on students’ vote)
Shiva Das
Excellence in Teaching Assistantship Award (nominated by students)
Jennifer Seger
Excellence in Mentorship Award (nominated by students)
Mark Dewhirst, Terry Yoshizumi
Excellence in Academic Performance Award (all first year students, based on GPA)
Hao Li
Excellence in Academic Performance Award (all second year students based on GPA)
Francisco Robles
Carey E. Floyd Jr. Graduate Fellowship: ($1,000 stipend supplement)
Vorakarn Chanyavanich
5/2/2009 - Tomo Symposium at Duke
Joseph Lo and Jim Dobbins chaired the Tomosynthesis Imaging Symposium at Duke University, the first conference of its kind dedicated to tomosynthesis imaging in multiple diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, showcasing the latest clinical and research trends in tomosynthesis imaging. We were pleased to have hosted over 80 registered attendees from 8 different countries. We enjoyed a wonderful atmosphere of collegiality and earnest, open exchange of ideas, not to mention some really fantastic food!
4/28/2009 - Lei Ren becomes 1st Duke med phys PhD
| Congratulations to Lei Ren, who successfully defended his PhD dissertation today to become our first ever PhD graduate. He was advised by Fang-Fang Yin who is also our program's associate director. Lei's dissertation was titled "Optimization Of Image Guided Radiation Therapy Using Limited Angle Projections." This picture was taken at his defense. |
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3/13/2009 - Sangroh Kim and Maryann Abogunde Receive Awards at NC Health Physics Society
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Congratulations to program students Sangroh Kim and Maryann Abogunde, who received best student paper awards at the North Carolina Chapter of the Health Physics Society (NCHPS) meeting held in New Bern, NC. Their paper titles were: A Monte Carlo dose estimation method using a voxelized phantom for pediatric CBCT (best student paper) Sangroh Kim, Greta Toncheva, Donald Frush, Fang-Fang Yin, and Terry Yoshizumi, NC Chapter HPS meeting, 3/12-13/2009 Dose Comparison between AAPM TG-61 protocol and MOSFET-based Phantom Dosimetry(best student paper) Maryann O. Abogunde. Greta Toncheva, Colin Anderson-Evans, Sua Yoo, Oana Cracuinescu, Bevery Steffy, Mark Dewhirst, Terry T. Yoshizumi , NC Chapter HPS meeting, 3/12-13/2009 | 
Sangroh and Maryann receiving their awards. |
3/09/2009 - CAMPEP accreditation for Radiation Oncology Residency Program
The Duke University residency program in Radiation Oncology Physics has been granted accreditation from CAMPEP through December 31, 2013. The objective of the Residency Program is to train individuals with medical physics and related education to practice professional radiation oncology physics. The program will provide comprehensive structured education and training in a clinical environment. Residents, under the supervision of board-certified medical physicists, participate in the clinical duties of a radiation oncology physicist. The resident will be, upon completion of the program, competent in radiation oncology physics practice and implementation of new technology, and prepared to sit for the certification examination of the American Board of Radiology in Therapeutic Radiological Physics.
The Program is supervised by the Director of Radiation Physics, Fang- Fang Yin, Ph.D, and with the oversight of the chair of Radiation Oncology, Christopher Willett, M.D. Two associate directors oversee the daily operations: Shiva Das, Ph.D. for academic affairs and Haijun Song, Ph.D. for clinical training.
The department of radiation oncology is one of the five sponsoring departments to the Medical Physics Graduate Program at Duke. Through this affiliation, the resident is arranged to take didactic courses in radiation therapy and imaging. For more information about the residency program, please contact Carolyn Crank, Research Secretary, at carolyn.crank@duke.edu.
3/03/2009 - Neil A. Petry Receives 2009 APhA-APPM William H. Briner Distinguished Achievement Award in Nuclear Pharmacy Practice
Congratulations to Neil Petry, who received the 2009 American Pharmacists Association
Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management (APhA-APPM) William H. Briner Distinguished
Achievement Award in Nuclear Pharmacy Practice. Petry is Clinical Assistant Professor in
Radiology, Faculty of Medical Physics Graduate Program, and Director of Radiopharmacy
and Nuclear Medicine Laboratory in Duke Radiology. He will be recognized at the APhA
Annual Meeting and Exposition April 3-6, 2009 in San Antonio, Texas. The award was
established to recognize the achievements of an individual who has made a significant contribution or sustained contributions to the provision of pharmaceutical care within
nuclear pharmacy practice.
Petry was selected in recognition of his work to promote research using
radiopharmaceuticals in both the diagnosis and treatment of disease. His efforts to
foster new drug development include the coordination and submission of nine
Investigational New Drug Applications, two Drug Master Files and two Orphan Drug
Applications to the FDA.
Petry’s nominator stated, "Neil Petry is a definite leader in his specialty and in
pharmacy. He is a man of integrity and vision; a gentleman and a good citizen. He is
held in high regard by his fellow practitioners. I am fortunate to have worked with him
over the years, and am proud to have him as a colleague and friend."
3/02/2009 - Two Faculty Papers Chosen for PMB Highlights
Two program faculty, Georgia Tourassi Ph.D. (associate professor of radiology) and Mark Oldham Ph.D. (associate professor of radiation oncology) are responsible for 2 of the 20 papers selected for the Physics in Medicine & Biology (PMB) "Highlights of 2008" collection. Publisher of the journal Simon Harris noted, "This collection represents the very best work published in the journal during 2008 based on high praise from our referees, the greatest number of online downloads and the outstanding nature of the research presented."
The papers are listed below, and may be accessed directly from the PMB website which showcases all 20 papers:
"Decision optimization of case-based computer-aided decision systems using genetic algorithms with application to mammography" Maciej A Mazurowski, Piotr A Habas, Jacek M Zurada and Georgia D Tourassi Phys. Med. Biol. 53 No 4 (21 February 2008) 895-908
"Improving the quantitative accuracy of optical-emission computed tomography by incorporating an attenuation correction: application to HIF1 imaging"
E Kim, J Bowsher, A S Thomas, H Sakhalkar, M Dewhirst and M Oldham Phys. Med. Biol. 53 No 19 (7 October 2008) 5371-5383
1/1/2009 - Spring 2009 Schedule
For this spring, we offer the following courses listed below by course number, title, and instructor:
• MEDPHY 210 Radiation Protection (Yoshizumi)
• MEDPHY 220 Radiation Therapy Physics (Oldham)
• MEDPHY 230 Modern Diagnostic Imaging Systems (Smith)
• MEDPHY 241 Nuclear Medicine Physics (Turkington)
• MEDPHY 251 Seminars in Medical Physics (Lo/Oldham)
• MEDPHY 313 Radiobiology II (Kirsch)
• MEDPHY 318 Clinical Practicum and Shadowing in Medical Health Physics (Yoshizumi)
• MEDPHY 323 Advanced Brachytherapy and Special Procedures (Yin)
• MEDPHY 327 Clinical Radiation Oncology (Kirkpatrick)
• MEDPHY 328 Clinical Practicum in Radiation Therapy (Z. Wang/Wu)
• MEDPHY 332 Molecular Imaging Seminar (Mukundan)
• MEDPHY 338 Clinical Practicum in Diagnostic Imaging (Trahey)
• MEDPHY 342 Radionuclide / Radiotracer Production (Vaidyanathan)
• MEDPHY 359 Independent Study in Medical Physics (Multiple)
• MEDPHY 361 Biostatistics for Medical Physics (Tourassi/Kapadia)
• MEDPHY 370 Frontiers of Biomedical Science (Wong)