The Medical Physics Program to a PhD degree with training in medical imaging, radiation therapy and nuclear medicine physics for careers in research, teaching or hospital practice.
The goal of the PhD Program in Medical Physics is to provide a sound academic foundation and practical experience for those planning to pursue a career in research, teaching or clinical medical physics in either of the subspecialty areas of medical imaging physics, therapeutic radiation physics or nuclear medicine physics.
Graduates are prepared for careers in these subspecialties or the continuation of their education in a postgraduate or residency program. The program comprises both academic and practical training components with the practical training taking place in affiliated hospitals.
The Medical Physics program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Educational Programs, CAMPEP.
The Medical Physics group comprises faculty in multiple UB and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center departments, postdoctoral staff, graduate student assistants and undergraduate students, with additional contributions from bioengineering and clinical and allied faculty as well as technical and administrative staff. The Medical Physics program faculty conduct research, teach and practice clinical medical physics in affiliated hospitals.
The PhD Program is interdisciplinary in outlook, and strives to draw together medical physics interests from throughout the academic community.
Accordingly, collaborative relationships are maintained with a number of laboratories outside the department. Notable among these associations are the Radiation Oncology and Biophysics departments at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
On campus, long-standing links exist with the departments of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Neurosurgery, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. A number of faculty members in these departments hold joint appointments in the Department of Radiology.
Consequently, a broad spectrum of medical physics expertise and research opportunities are available to students in the Medical Physics program.
The instruction and research in the Medical Physics Program can be broadly categorized into three subspecialty areas: diagnostic and interventional imaging, radiation therapy and nuclear medicine physics. Additionally, experiences in clinical medical physics are offered. Current imaging research programs involve new detector development for rapid sequence, high resolution radiography, fluoroscopy and angiography, region of interest and micro computed tomography, system characterization and optimization, single photon counting and dosimetry.
Research into the development of high resolution systems for image guided interventions and the development of interventional devices such as specialized stents for blood flow modification and treatment of cerebral aneurysms as well as 3D printed vascular and other models are also actively being pursued.
Two modern angiography suites dedicated to imaging physics and pre-clinical research are available in the new UB Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Image analysis and image processing involving guidance and interventional neuro and cardio vascular procedures and 3D imaging are other active projects. Magnetic resonance imaging projects using clinical and experimental high field dedicated animal systems are available at the CTRC and Roswell Park.
A full range of external beam and brachytherapy projects are actively being pursued at Roswell Park where four linear accelerators and a Gamma-knife facility are available.
Nuclear medicine physics faculty members are active in emission tomography imaging technology research. State-of-the-art emission tomographic imaging systems are available for research and teaching, including several clinical positron emission tomography (PET) and PET/CT systems, a dedicated small animal PET (microPET), clinical SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) systems, and radiopharmaceutical laboratories.
Multi-modality research projects are also encouraged and may be fostered by the complementary interests of participating faculty. The program combines faculty and resources from both UB and Roswell Park.
Individual student programs are tailored to the student’s needs and interest, and to ensure broad experience in the major areas of the medical physics. A graduate student in the Medical Physics Program enjoys considerable freedom in the development of dissertation research and in the choice of his/her major professor.
A total of at least 72 credit hours are required for the PhD degree. Of this total, at least 30 credit hours must be earned in formal didactic coursework (including letter-graded Independent Study), as well as including 4 credit hours in Seminar plus at least 2 credit hours Medical Physics Practicum (at least 1 in each of imaging and therapy physics); excluded are Research, Thesis Guidance, Supervised Teaching, and (unless receiving a priori approval under special circumstances) pass/fail Independent Study courses. Where appropriate, didactic course credits may be transferred from other graduate programs.
The following courses, where graded, must be successfully completed with the achievement of a grade of B or better.
Required of all students in the Medical Physics Program:
Substitution of a more advanced course(s) is only upon approval by the adviser and program director.
An additional 3-credit elective in the students chosen specialty area is required for PhD students and may be chosen for example from one of the following:
The following courses may be used as elective upon approval by the adviser:
You may take other courses in radiation biology, biomedical engineering, computer science, physics, electrical engineering, mechanical and aerospace engineering, neuroscience, bio-surface science, biostatistics with permission of your adviser.
Qualified students may petition for a waiver of the requirement for any specific course upon the basis of the completion of an equivalent course with a grade of B or higher.
Students may be subject to a comprehensive examination once completing all core medical physics courses.
Doctoral Requirements: 72 total credits plus thesis
72 Credits: 21 didactic + 3 additional didactic in specialty + 4 (min) MP Seminar + 2 (min) MP Practicum
+ Additional credits can include Research and Thesis Preparation
Doctoral students are required to register for credit in Seminar for at least 4 semesters. In addition, attendance at the Medical Physics Program seminar series is expected of all students throughout the duration of their graduate programs. During this period, each student is expected to present at least one seminar.
Advancement to candidacy for the PhD degree requires the completion of all programmatic course requirements, and satisfaction of the preliminary examination requirements.
The preliminary examination for the PhD consists of the preparation of an independently written report and an oral defense.
The written report may be prepared in the form of either (a) a summary of research work performed by the student, which work resulted in an original paper authored by the student and accepted for publication in a professional journal or conference proceeding and/or accepted for presentation as a talk or poster at a national or regional scientific conference or (b) a research grant application.
a) Summary report option: the report should summarize the contents of the original paper(s) and/or presentation and should contain a background review of the subject area as well as a section outlining relevant areas of future work that could be investigated. The section on future work should demonstrate the student’s ability to critically assess the feasibility of performing new and important investigations.
b) Research-grant-application option: the report should be in the format of a grant application to a national funding agency such as the NIH or NSF. It should provide background information and a description of the research plan, presenting compelling evidence of the scientific soundness and feasibility of the proposed work. Budgetary and personnel sections of the application are not required.
All reports should contain a listing with full citation of all published papers, proceedings and professional meeting presentations authored or coauthored by the student while in this Medical Physics Program. Copies of related abstracts, manuscripts and posters should be provided as an appendix.
The acceptability of the written report and oral defense will be determined by an examination committee consisting of at least three faculty members of the Medical Physics Program, one of whom will serve as chair. The committee members and chair will be selected by the Medical Physics Program Director in consultation with the student’s research advisor. The report topic is chosen by the student but must be approved beforehand by the examination committee chair; it may address a research topic that overlaps with the student’s proposed PhD thesis project. The report and its oral defense should be completed by the beginning of the student's fifth semester in residence. The written report is to be first submitted to the examination committee chair. If found to be appropriate with respect to topic, format and composition, it will then be submitted to the exam committee for scientific evaluation. If the exam committee finds the written document to be unacceptable, it will be returned to the student with comments for revision. Following approval of the written document, an oral defense before the same committee will be scheduled; the oral presentation is open only to faculty. Questions posed by the committee during the defense will be directed primarily toward the presentation, but will also explore the student's mastery of basic concepts of medical physics and assess the student’s ability to conduct independent research and successfully complete a PhD dissertation.
If the oral presentation is judged to be unacceptable, the committee will inform the student of the areas of weakness. A second defense will be scheduled after a period of time appropriate for correcting the deficit(s). Failure of the second defense or failure to successfully prepare and defend a report within the guidelines and timeline presented here is grounds for dismissal from the graduate program. The student may challenge the decision of the examination committee by written appeal to the Program Director. Should a satisfactory resolution not be reached after appeal to the Program Director, further appeal may be made to the JSMBS Dean.
The dissertation research is conducted by the graduate student under the tutelage of the Dissertation Committee consisting of the major professor and at least three additional university faculty, two of whom are members of the program’s graduate faculty; all committee members should hold the rank of assistant professor or above and should be members of the UB Graduate School. The Dissertation Committee critically monitors and supervises preparation of the dissertation and will meet with the student every six months following successful completion of the Preliminary Examination. At these meetings the student will present a progress report to the committee and the Dissertation Committee Report Form must be completed and a signed copy provided to the Program Coordinator. A concise written progress report indicating how recommendations from the previous meeting were addressed and specifying future research plans should be prepared by the student and given to the committee at least one week prior to this meeting. The report should include a listing of presentations and publications since the last meeting and a copy of the report should be attached to the Dissertation Committee Report Form
At least six (6) months before the anticipated dissertation defense date, the candidate shall have the essential components of data collection and analysis finalized and shall provide the Dissertation Committee with substantial evidence of such in their final progress report. The sufficiency of data collection and analysis and of the final progress report must be approved by the Dissertation Committee on the Report Form six (6) months before the anticipated oral dissertation defense. Exception to this timeline may be obtained by appeal to and unanimous approval of the Committee. Entrance into the residency match program, visits to prospective residency programs or the start date for a job will generally not be the basis for such an exception.
The oral defense of the dissertation can be scheduled only with the approval of the candidate’s Dissertation Committee and the Program Director after review of the written dissertation and after any requested amendments have been satisfactorily made. The research represented by the dissertation is to be presented in an open seminar prior to the formal oral defense.
Doctoral students, admitted to candidacy after passing the preliminary examination, normally receive financial support from their advisor in the form of a graduate/research assistantship or part-time job.
Highly qualified underrepresented minority candidates may be eligible for assistance through the Arthur A. Schomburg Fellowship.
Federal grants and loans are available by filing the FAFSA application.
The candidate for graduate work in the Medical Physics Program should have demonstrated above-average academic performance, especially in mathematics, physics and chemistry. Entry into the program is contingent upon award of the baccalaureate degree.
Applicants generally enter the program directly into the Medical Physics Program.
Applicants are required to submit the following:
International applicants must also present:
University/Institutional Graduate School Requirements:
You can apply to the PhD program online using the button below.
Under Select Degree Program select “Medical Physics (PhD)” in the dropdown list.
After you have applied online, you must submit these official credentials:
GRE score reporting codes:
The application fee is $85.
Your application fee must be paid online. This can be done via your Graduate School Application Manager account.
International applicants must also present your official TOEFL score. It is university policy that TOEFL score reports be no older than two years when students enter a program. A TOEFL (PBT) score of 550 or TOEFL (IBT) score of 79 is considered the minimum acceptable for admissions consideration.
The Medical Physics Accreditation Commission, CAMPEP, requires that entering students have either an undergraduate physics major or a strong physics minor with at least three upper-level advanced physics courses as required of physics majors.
Admission is based on:
Recommended undergraduate courses include: physics and mathematics, including calculus and statistics, biomedical and/or electrical engineering, chemistry, biology, and physiology.
Your application should be completed and official documentation filed no later than March 15 for matriculation in the fall semester. However, the program has a rolling admission and you should contact the program director if you desire to file after this deadline. The admissions committee of the program will review your completed application and you will be contacted directly by the program regarding admission.
