Kiaran P. McGee - Abstract for "What Physicists Do"

Assistant Professor of Radiologic Physics, Mayo Medical School
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine

  Future Physicists Day meeting information

A funny thing happened on the way through college: interesting detours into physics in medicine & biology

Medical physics is defined as an applied branch of physics concerned with the application of the concepts and methods of physics to the diagnosis and treatment of human disease.

The medical physicist must possess a broad and in-depth knowledge of a variety of disciplines including and not limited to the physical, biological, mathematical, and computational sciences. These broad requirements and applied nature of this field reflect the spectrum of opportunities that are afforded to those scientists whose interests lie in the application of their learning to the solution of complex problems encountered in modern medicine.

In this talk, the individual experience of the journey from an undergraduate physics major through graduate studies to professional medical physicist will be described. In particular, the interconnections between undergraduate science curriculum and their application to both research and clinical medicine will be identified, providing an insight into the challenging yet highly rewarding field of medical physics.