Leadership Messages

I was lucky. Many “first jobs” in medical physics weren’t so conducive to professional development. Too often, new graduates could be asked to work in isolation as the sole physicist at a clinic, with little mentoring, feedback, or support. They may be asked to serve only a narrow clinical function, such as linac QA and chart checks, with little exposure to the full range of technology and duties a medical physicist could have familiarity with.

I see residency as, in effect, an effort to guarantee new physicists a favorable “first job” environment. A residency should guarantee close access to collegial, experienced physicists for feedback and expertise. A residency should guarantee a broad range of duties: not just QA and chart checks, but brachytherapy, treatment planning, commissioning, and so on. A residency should guarantee a department equipped with up-to-date technology and committed to clinical improvement and modern safety and quality practices.

Residency programs are responsible for upholding CAMPEP educational standards, but I don’t see residency as an extension of school. Before the advent of residency programs, you would already be a junior physicist with clinical responsibilities. In that spirit, I see residents as physicists not students, and my expectation is that graduates will be experienced medical physicists, not someone just ready for their first job. In the end, a residency has to take you farther than two years of being traditionally “on-the-job.”

Before coming to the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper, I was a residency director and also built a certificate program from scratch. I’ve thought a lot about medical physics training, and I hope this is reflected in our residency program. I think we have a great staff for this, engaged and enthusiastic about their work. Year after year, in “employee engagement” surveys, our physicists and dosimetrists have scored in the 99th-percentile nationally, reflecting the dedication with which they approach their work and bring to residency training. In 2019, we were a finalist for the AAPM Innovations in Medical Physics Education award.

To all of you visiting our website and thinking of applying, welcome!

Our residency program grew out of positive educational experiences with local medical physics graduate students. Since then, we have cultivated an environment in which educating future medical physicists is an important part of our clinical practice. Our staff understand that teaching the next generation strengthens not only the profession, but also our own clinical practice.

We received CAMPEP accreditation in 2019. Since then, we have graduated seven residents, all of whom have moved into positions as clinical physicists, and we welcomed our ninth resident in July 2026. Although we are a relatively small department, we draw on tremendous resources both internally and through our partner-level affiliation with MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Our goal is not simply to expose residents to the tasks performed by a clinical medical physicist, but to help them develop progressively toward clinical practice. Residents begin with close faculty guidance and, as their knowledge, judgment, and experience develop, assume increasing ownership of clinical work. By graduation, we expect residents to be capable of practicing independently while recognizing when collaboration or escalation is appropriate.

Our program provides in-depth training in the modern application of physics to radiation oncology. Residents work alongside radiation oncologists, dosimetrists, therapists, nurses, and other members of the clinical team, because effective medical physics practice requires both technical expertise and the ability to function as part of a multidisciplinary team.

The greatest strength of our program is the camaraderie, experience, and enthusiasm of our faculty. Our physicists are eager to teach, challenge, and support residents throughout their two years here. We welcome your interest in our program and look forward to the opportunity to meet you.