On April 25, 2025, the Medical Physics Graduate Program proudly hosted its annual Research Symposium, a celebration of scientific innovation and academic excellence. The event featured an engaging poster session with an impressive display of 40 research posters presented by students and faculty, highlighting the breadth and depth of ongoing research within the program.
“It was the best Research Symposium we’ve had in the Medical Physics Graduate Program with lots of engagement and discussions both students and faculty members,” remarked Program Director Mark Oldham, PhD. “It’s inspiring to see our students share and present their work.”
The symposium concluded with the recognition of outstanding student research in both the PhD and MS categories. Congratulations to the following poster award winners:
PhD Student Poster Winners:
- 1st Place – Olivia Dickinson (3rd Year, Advisor: Dean Darnell, PhD)
“Wireless Image Data Transmission in Low-Field MRI Using an Integrated Radio-Frequency/Wireless Spiral Transmit-Receive Coil” - 2nd Place – Anna Costelle (3rd Year, Advisor: Bastiaan Driehuys, PhD)
“Mapping the Chemical Shift of 129Xe in Red Blood Cells as a Biomarker for Pulmonary Hypertension” - 3rd Place (Tie) –
Jack Stevens (2nd Year, Advisor: Kyle Lafata, PhD)
“Towards a Unified Topological Representation of Radiomic Texture and Morphology Features: Development and Proof-of-Concept Application to Oropharyngeal Cancer”
AND
Xin Wu (3rd Year, Advisors: Jackie Wu, PhD and Qiuwen Wu, PhD)
“A Machine Learning Toolkit Assisted Approach for IMRT Fluence Map Optimization”
MS Student Poster Winners:
- 1st Place – Joseph Farina (2nd Year, Advisor: Mark Oldham, PhD)
“Heat Shock Protein 90 Targeted Radiation Therapy Enhanced with Cherenkov Light Photo-Activation” - 2nd Place – Ryan Sanford (2nd Year, Advisors: Oana Craciunescu, PhD and Julie Raffi, PhD)
“Development of an Inversely Optimized Needle Path Planning Algorithm for Use with a US-based Needle Tracking System in GYN HDR Brachytherapy” - 3rd Place (Tie) –
Katie Olivas (2nd Year, Advisor: Ehsan Samei, PhD)
“Development of an Integrated PET-CT Simulation Pipeline for Virtual Imaging Trials and Biomedical Imaging Research”
AND
Kyle Klein (2nd Year, Advisor: Tim Turkington, PhD)
“An Investigation into the Benefits of Time-of-Flight PET Imaging Through Simulations and Physical Phantoms with Attenuation Artifacts”
The event showcased the remarkable talent and dedication of our students and underscored the program’s commitment to advancing research in medical physics. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all participants for their exceptional work!
