November 7th is an important day for our community, one in which we celebrate the collective contributions of medical physicists in healthcare. From diagnostic imaging and nuclear medicine to radiation therapy, the impact of medical physics in both diagnosis and treatment is broad, with physicists working to apply physical principles to solve problems in medicine.
For the lead up to this year’s International Day of Medical Physics, we asked our team to shout-out a physicist that has inspired them. And by joining us in celebrating the physicists who make a difference in our community, you could win an electron tree!
Tell us about who inspires you and why in the comments below or on social media by tagging us and you’ll be entered to win. The winner will be announced on December 7th, 2020.
Source: GIFER
“Dennis Mah supervised and mentored me at ProCure in New Jersey, my first job out of residency in 2013. Dennis joined ProCure as the chief medical physicist, but at the time he had no background in protons—it was still an emerging modality. A natural educator and lifelong learner, Dennis took on the challenge of starting a proton center while immersing himself and studying proton therapy.
Dennis created a culture in the physics department that encouraged asking questions, teamwork, and urgency in patient care. I was lucky enough to sit next to Dennis in our physics cubicles, hearing stories about the field, the big names in AAPM, and nerdy jokes. Dennis has the ability to take complicated concepts and translate them into ways everyone could understand. A diligent and hard-working physicist, I admire Dennis Mah and thank him for all his contributions on Medical Physics Day!”
-Elisabeth Van Wie
-Tyler Blackwell
-Alan Nelson
-Jennifer Paisley
-Jacob Beres
“Charles Coffey. I was extremely lucky to be trained in Vanderbilt’s Medical Physics graduate program during Dr. Coffey’s time there. His incredible work ethic—splitting his time between being Chief Physicist, Graduate Program Director, AAPM President and Intramural Softball pitcher—was always a marvel to me. I am one of the many beneficiaries of his great teaching ability and dedication to his students, not only in their training as physicists, but in all aspects of life.”
-Kevin Tierney
-Christine Gnaster
-Andrew Jensen
We all know someone that is an absolute all-star physicist, or one that played a big role in our careers. Who is it that inspires you? Drop a name in the comments or on social (tag us!) and you’ll be entered into a drawing for an electron tree!
Because now is a time to spread the love for physicists, keep it going by checking out Physicist Feud, where our team hams it up with a special radiation oncology version of the famous Family Feud gameshow.
written by Tyler Blackwell
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Shoutout to Julie Lo at the Valley-Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Care for being a role model through my years of X-Ray & Therapy school!
I’d like to give a shoutout to Todd Pawlicki and his team at UC San Diego Health for redefining the Physicist’s role in the clinic.
Life works in mysterious ways. When and how we connect with people, and the impact they leave on us, always amazes me. A medical physicist whom I really admire and consider as my mentor, is Rex Ayers. I had the opportunity to connect with him during preparation of my Part 3 ABR board exams. His impact on my life was not limited to the preparation but to several facets of life, for which I will forever be grateful to him. I inspire to be a thorough clinical physicist, a great friend and a doting husband/father like him every day. On this international day of medical physicist, I pay my regards and gratitude to Rex.
Giving a shoutout to Bailey Pullen for giving me the encouragement to pursue this line of work. I would not be where I am today without him.
I have been lucky to have several outstanding mentors. One who I believe deserves more recognition is Dr. Dennis Cheek. He was recently appointed the Director of Medical Physics at the University of Kentucky. I admire his humility, authenticity, and ability to break things down and identify ways to help you grow in all aspects of life. I only wish I had more time of overlap with him. Thank you Dr. Cheek!
A physicist who I will always be grateful to is my friend Eduardo Villarreal! A very knowledgeable and well rounded scientist, and an outstanding human being! Eduardo is actually the one who invited me to inquire about the PhD program in Calgary. In my first year when I was overwhelmed with classes, duties, information, QA, Eduardo was always a solid rock to go to for information, and sometimes for consolation! In the subsequent years he always had words of wisdom and words of laughter at any occasion, warranted or not! Gracias Doctor Eduardo!
A physicist that I look up to is a former co-worker of mine, Jennifer Scharff, MS, DABR. She taught me how to be diligent in my work, but also still have fun and develop good relationships with our therapist colleagues. 💗
My mentor – Bret Heintz!
Almost 20 y ago, I switched from Industrial Physics to Medical Physics, being one of the last generation that ABR still allowed job cross training . I had several mentors that I owe a lot, not just Medical Physicists but also Therapists and Dosimetrists. However, to Bret Heintz, I owe him my foundation of Medical Physicist that I am today. His Medical Physics knowledge, depth and passion was a great standard for me to look up and always try to achieve! I learnt so much from him not just about Physics, but how to deal with pressure, people, management, equipment and so much more. Thank you SO MUCH Bret for every day we worked together!
Bret Heintz took me under his wing when I was young and made sure that I understood the why and the how & could explain these to both physicists and therapists. Lots of us only can do a part.
I echo comments about Charley Coffey, though I trained under Dr Coffey at UK. He has trained a large percentage of practicing physicists over his long career as a mentor and teacher. He had a way of instilling good physics practices both by living them every day in the clinic and making certain that all his students and residents abide by them. I owe much to Charley for the physics practices he instilled in me and the physicist that I am today.
I’d like to give a shoutout to one of my grad school classmates and fellow female physicist Linda Poplawski at WVU! It’s great to keep in the loop about new technology and ask advice on implementing new things or quality improvement.
So thankful to have a close friend, Irene Boll, that inspires me! I know she works incredibly hard and is someone I can always go to when I have questions with no judgment. She reminds me why we love this field!
Ned Sternick hired me for a summer job in June, 1973. I worked with him for over 40 years at Dartmouth, Tufts, Nomos, and Rhode Island. In addition to teaching me medical physics (I graduated with an Engineering and Physics double major – headed for the semiconductor industry) and inspiring me to become active in AAPM and other organizations, we have, most importantly, remained the best of friends for nearly 50 years. I still look to him for advice and he has never failed to help me see a broader and more effective view of the world and our profession.
I hate to admit it to him, but Paul Keall has been a role model to me since my postdoc at Stanford. He has great ideas and his career goal is to improve the life of cancer patients is very clear. Paul is extremely supportive of trainees of all levels and a very kind person overall. He treats everyone the same and emphasizes the importance of life outside of work. Even though he lives on the other side of the world, I still go to him for advice and he never turns me down. The only downside to him is that he cannot stack beer cups.
It’s too hard to pick just one. I’ve been mentored by so many amazing physicists. Dr. Charles Coffey while I was in graduate school helped me understand the physicist’s role in the clinic. While in residency, Dan Pavord and Dr. George Sherouse helped further my understanding of clinical physics. Now in my first (and only job) Dr. Nilendu Gupta has mentored me in leadership and helped me spread my wings in a large academic medical center. I appreciate them all because they all mentored me in different ways and at different times.
Dr William F. Hanson who worked at MD Anderson Cancer Center , Texas is a rare gem among physicists. With more than 40 years of experience as a Medical physicists , He was a true inspiration to many and still is . One quote that he says still touches my heart : “Build redundant systems and build trust with colleagues above us , below us and on our level “ .
He loves to teach others and he breaks things so simple and humble that no one ever forget what he taught! He has been teaching Medical physics from 1986 till date to the dosimetry students and everyone appreciates his sincerity and passion towards medical physics !
On this International Day of Medical Physicist, I would like to send my tribute to my mentor Frank Fan, PhD DABR. When I just joined a consulting group in 2013, Frank was my mentor among six free standing cancer centers. Without his stimulating guidance and encouraging teaching, I could not accomplish all the medical physics tasks and clinical service to our cancer patients in North California, Oregon and Hawaii States. Thanks Frank, you rock!
John Mullins at Methodist Estabrook Cancer Center is a great physicist in so many ways. Dr. Mullins is extremely knowledgeable yet always knows how to explain a concept so anyone would be able to understand it. He has helped implement many new procedures and has been a big part of our success in doing so. Dr. Mullins is truly a department resource, in fact, we always say W.W.J.D (What would John do)?
Thanks for everything, John!
Dr. John Bayouth at University of Wisconsin. As the physics chief, residency director, and AAPM President while he was also my graduate advisor, I knew that I was probably the least important person he talked to on a daily basis. Yet, even when he was having a long and busy day, during our meeting times he would stop everything and focus completely on our discussion. In addition to him being a fantastic physicist, this always impressed me and is a quality I hope to be able to cultivate in myself.
Mike Beach is hands down my favorite physicist! I’m privileged to witness first hand his deep commitment to patient care. He has the heart-of-a-teacher, and I’ve learned so much about physics and life in general from him. And dad jokes. Working with Mike means hearing a lot of dad jokes!
George Zacharopoulos, CEO of Aktina Medical is an amazing person who I truly admire. He is a real “Homo Universalis” as he has excelled for over 50 years in all specialties of medical physics, in engineering as well as in painting. His genius is only paralleled by his kind heart, his generosity and compassion. He has always been a mentor and a role model to me. Thank you for everything!
Darryl Kaurin has mentored me since I was a wee Physics Assistant at NMPC! He pounded a good foundation of clinical medical physics through my thick skull throughout residency and continues to put up with me on a day to day basis at our clinic in Olympia, WA. He can’t help but do the most thorough job day in and day out. I’m always happy to follow his example!
C. J. Karzmark, Chief of Rad Onc Physics at Stanford for decades up to almost 1990, inspired many medical physicists to enter the field during that time, including me. Karz was best known for his pioneering work, along with Varian Associates, in bringing the linear accelerator to fruition in treating cancer patients.