Duke University Medical Physics Graduate Program

Duke University Medical Physics Graduate Program The official Facebook resource for the Duke Medical Physics Graduate Program.

The Duke University Medical Physics Graduate Program is a CAMPEP accredited, interdisciplinary program sponsored by five departments: Radiology, Radiation Oncology, Physics, Biomedical Engineering, and Medical Health Physics. Degrees Offered
- MS
- PhD

Academic Tracks
- Diagnostic Imaging
- Radiation Therapy
- Nuclear Medicine
- Health Physics

We offer a number of opportunities for research trai

ning, including an NIH training grant for PhD students and a thesis option for MS students. We also offer an optional summer clinical internship for MS students interested in additional clinical training.

On April 10, 2026, the Duke Medical Physics Graduate Program hosted its Annual Research Symposium, bringing together stu...
04/17/2026

On April 10, 2026, the Duke Medical Physics Graduate Program hosted its Annual Research Symposium, bringing together students, faculty, and alumni for an exciting showcase of discovery and collaboration. The event featured 30 research posters highlighting cutting-edge work across the field.
We were especially honored to welcome Irina Vergalasova, PhD, DABR as keynote speaker and recipient of the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award. Her leadership in brachytherapy physics, dedication to education, and lasting impact on the profession exemplify the very best of Duke Medical Physics.
The day concluded with recognition of outstanding student research—congratulations to all of our poster award winners for their exceptional work!
Read more: https://medicalphysics.duke.edu/news/medical-physics-graduate-program-annual-research-symposium-and-distinguished-alumni-awardee/

Mingyue Chen, MS, successfully defended her Scholarship Project titled “Reinforcement Learning for Automated IMRT Treatm...
04/10/2026

Mingyue Chen, MS, successfully defended her Scholarship Project titled “Reinforcement Learning for Automated IMRT Treatment Planning: Mathematical Formulation for Optimized Reward Function Design” on April 10, 2026. Guided by Jackie Wu, PhD and Yang Sheng, PhD, this marks an important milestone in Mingyue’s academic journey. Congratulations, Mingyue!

Big news from Duke Medical Physics! 🎉We’re thrilled to celebrate an incredible achievement—14 of our graduate students m...
04/01/2026

Big news from Duke Medical Physics! 🎉
We’re thrilled to celebrate an incredible achievement—14 of our graduate students matched to top residency programs across the country in the 2026 cycle!
From radiation therapy (RT) to diagnostic imaging (DI), this talented group of MS and PhD students is heading to some of the nation’s leading institutions. Their success reflects not only their hard work and dedication, but also the strength of the training and mentorship at Duke University.
👏 Join us in congratulating our outstanding graduates.
We are so proud of you and can’t wait to see the impact you’ll make in the field of medical physics!
Read more: https://medicalphysics.duke.edu/news/duke-medical-physics-graduate-students-achieve-outstanding-residency-match-success/

Great job and congratulations, Roberto Carrascosa, MS (Advisor: Scott Robertson, PhD) on defending your thesis on March ...
03/31/2026

Great job and congratulations, Roberto Carrascosa, MS (Advisor: Scott Robertson, PhD) on defending your thesis on March 31, 2026, titled: “Development and Validation of Tools for Virtual Imaging Trials of Ultrafast Breast MRI.” Roberto Carrascosa’s research focused on development of software tools for simulating Ultrafast Breast MRI in order to optimize clinical protocols. This accomplishment reflects his hard work and dedication — well done, Roberto!

We are excited to share that Justin Simmons, MS (Advisor: Timothy Turkington, PhD) has successfully defended his Master’...
03/31/2026

We are excited to share that Justin Simmons, MS (Advisor: Timothy Turkington, PhD) has successfully defended his Master’s thesis titled “Analysis of PET Image Quality Using 2D vs 3D ROIs in Small Spheres” on March 31, 2026. Congratulations to Justin on reaching this important academic milestone!

We are delighted to celebrate Katherine Moeser, MS (Advisor: Timothy Turkington, PhD), on the successful defense of her ...
03/30/2026

We are delighted to celebrate Katherine Moeser, MS (Advisor: Timothy Turkington, PhD), on the successful defense of her master’s thesis on March 30, 2026, titled “Respiration-Related Attenuation Artifacts in PET/CT.” Congratulations on this outstanding achievement!

We are thrilled to celebrate Jingtong Zhao, PhD (Advisors: Chunhao Wang, PhD and Deshan Yang, PhD), on the successful de...
03/30/2026

We are thrilled to celebrate Jingtong Zhao, PhD (Advisors: Chunhao Wang, PhD and Deshan Yang, PhD), on the successful defense of her Doctoral dissertation on March 30, 2026, titled “Explainable AI and Advanced Mathematical Modeling for Radiotherapy Outcome Assessment.” Congratulations on this fantastic accomplishment!

Please join us in celebrating Yakun Zhang, PhD (Advisor: Ehsan Samei, PhD), who successfully defended her PhD dissertati...
03/27/2026

Please join us in celebrating Yakun Zhang, PhD (Advisor: Ehsan Samei, PhD), who successfully defended her PhD dissertation on March 27, 2026. Her dissertation, “Systemic Integration of Retrospective Analysis for Optimizing CT Imaging Practice,” focused on improving CT quality monitoring through quantitative image quality metrics that better reflect clinical performance. Specifically, she investigates organ-specific image noise and task-based detectability in large clinical CT datasets, examining how these measures vary with patient size, imaging technique, and reconstruction settings to identify clinically meaningful image quality differences across scanners and institutions.

Warm congratulations to Runhe Tan, MS (Advisor: Kyle Lafata, PhD) on successfully defending his Master’s thesis on March...
03/27/2026

Warm congratulations to Runhe Tan, MS (Advisor: Kyle Lafata, PhD) on successfully defending his Master’s thesis on March 27, 2026. His thesis, “Investigating Intra-tumoral Heterogenity Driven by Nutrient Dynamics and Radiotherapy Using an In-silico Avascular Tumor Growth Model,” focused on developing computational tumor growth models to study how nutrient dynamics and radiation response shape intra-tumoral heterogeneity, and on translating those patterns into image-based features for radiomics analysis.

We are pleased to announce that Xin Wu, PhD (mentored by Jackie Wu, PhD and Qiuwen Wu, PhD), has successfully defended t...
03/27/2026

We are pleased to announce that Xin Wu, PhD (mentored by Jackie Wu, PhD and Qiuwen Wu, PhD), has successfully defended their dissertation, " From Dose Engine to Machine Learning in Radiation Therapy: Frameworks, Insights, and Clinical Applications," on March 27, 2026. Xin Wu’s research focuses on radiotherapy treatment plan optimization, spanning from fast dose calculation to IMRT and VMAT optimization algorithm development. His work integrates physics-based dose model with machine learning methodologies to improve the efficiency, robustness, and interpretability of treatment planning. We celebrate his accomplishment and wish him the best in his future endeavors!

On March 27, 2026, Em Harkness, MS (Advisors: Ehsan Samei, PhD and Francesco Ria, PhD) successfully defended their maste...
03/27/2026

On March 27, 2026, Em Harkness, MS (Advisors: Ehsan Samei, PhD and Francesco Ria, PhD) successfully defended their master’s thesis titled “A Framework for Uncertainty Propagation in Risk-to-Risk Assessment of Clinical and Radiation Risks in CT Across Patient Demographics.” Congratulations to Em on this achievement!

On March 26, 2026, Caleb Smith, MS (Advisor: Justus Adamson, PhD) successfully defended his master’s thesis titled “Quan...
03/27/2026

On March 26, 2026, Caleb Smith, MS (Advisor: Justus Adamson, PhD) successfully defended his master’s thesis titled “Quantifying the Potential Benefit of Applying Remote Magnetic Navigation Systems to Abdominal SBRT.” Caleb Smith’s research focused on using magnetic systems to spare dose to OARs during abdominal SBRT. Congratulations on this important milestone!

Address

2424 Erwin Road, Ste 101
Durham, NC
27705

Telephone

(919) 684-1400

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Duke University Medical Physics Graduate Program posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Duke University Medical Physics Graduate Program:

Shortcuts

Share

Category