Top (left to right): Runhe Tan, Wilson Oswald, Evangelina Wong, Irina Vergalasova
Bottom (left to right): Julia Sherman, Katie Olivas, Megan Soll, Casey Heirman
On April 10, 2026, the Duke Medical Physics Graduate Program proudly hosted its Annual Research Symposium — an inspiring celebration of scientific discovery, collaboration, and academic excellence. The event featured a dynamic poster session showcasing 30 research presentations from students, reflecting the program’s depth, innovation, and interdisciplinary impact.
The symposium was honored to welcome Irina Vergalasova, PhD, DABR as keynote speaker and recipient of the 2025 Duke Medical Physics Graduate Program Distinguished Alumni Award. Dr. Vergalasova, Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, was recognized for her outstanding contributions to clinical innovation, leadership in medical physics education, and dedicated service to the profession and to Duke as an engaged alumna. Her pioneering work in brachytherapy physics continues to shape the field and inspire the next generation of medical physicists.
The event concluded with recognition of exceptional student research. Congratulations to this year’s poster award recipients:
PhD Student Poster Awards
1st Place – Katie Olivas (Advisor: Ehsan Abadi, PhD)
A Quantitative Framework for Opportunistic Bone Health Screening Using Photon-Counting CT Localizer Radiographs
2nd Place – Casey Heirman (Advisor: Kyle Lafata, PhD)
A Multiscale Radiopathomic Cox Modeling Framework for Survival Stratification in Murine Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
3rd Place – Evangelina Wong (Advisor: Trong-Kha Truong, PhD)
Real-time Shimming of Respiration-Induced B0 Fluctuations in the Spinal Cord Using an Integrated RF/Shim iPRES (3) Coil Array and Ultrasound-Based OCM Sensor
MS Student Poster Awards
1st Place – Runhe Tan (Advisor: Kyle Lafata, PhD)
Investigating Intra-tumoral Heterogeneity Driven by Nutrient Dynamics and Radiotherapy Using an In-Silico Avascular Tumor Growth Model
2nd Place – Julia Sherman (Advisor: Mark Oldham, PhD)
Commissioning Alanine Dosimetry for Electron FLASH at TUNL
3rd Place (Tie)
Megan Soll (Advisor: Gregory Palmer, PhD)
Integrated Inverse Molecular Sentinel (iMS) Platform with Automated Tunable Gold Nanostar Synthesis for SERS-Based Biosensing
Wilson Oswald (Advisor: Dean Darnell, PhD)
Toward Reconfigurable Low-Field MRI Scanners: Separable Gradient Coils for a Cylindrical Permanent Magnet Array
