Ideas on Getting into Particle Therapy

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mfc51
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Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 12:11 pm

Ideas on Getting into Particle Therapy

Post by mfc51 » Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:43 pm

I am interested in studying and researching in the field of particle therapy, but I really can't find a lot of information on how to get into this area, which institutions have such programs, etc...

I've looked into medical physics as a possibility, but it seems to be the wrong field for those interested in research. Do people get into particle therapy with a background in accelerator physics, biophysics, radiation oncology?...

I found this nice little list of institutions with accelerators to study hadron therapy: http://www.iss.infn.it/webg3/toptera/hadthe.html (almost every link is broken, but the list seems accurate)

Any institutions I've found doing research in this field don't really have helpful information on prospective students.

Anyone have ideas, insights, advice, recommendations?

Thanks all!

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grae313
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Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 8:46 pm

Re: Ideas on Getting into Particle Therapy

Post by grae313 » Sat Jul 03, 2010 12:49 pm

Particle Therapy: Because there's really nothing that can't be fixed by bombarding it with high energy particles. Nothing.

arieszen
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 6:01 am

Re: Ideas on Getting into Particle Therapy

Post by arieszen » Sat Jul 03, 2010 1:30 pm

It took a lot out of me to not crack a joke about this!
sorry mfc51, you meant theoretical particle physics. there have been recent posts about this topic. you should check that out. it gives rankings as well.

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grae313
Posts: 2296
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 8:46 pm

Re: Ideas on Getting into Particle Therapy

Post by grae313 » Sat Jul 03, 2010 6:05 pm

No, he didn't. This dude's serious. That's why he was looking at medical physics programs.

arieszen
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 6:01 am

Re: Ideas on Getting into Particle Therapy

Post by arieszen » Sun Jul 04, 2010 6:21 am

haha, the joke's on me. wow! there is actually something called particle therapy. sorry mfc51, I had no idea.

canadiana
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Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2010 12:12 pm

Re: Ideas on Getting into Particle Therapy

Post by canadiana » Fri Jul 09, 2010 12:42 pm

If you want to go into Particle Therapy, Medical Physics would be the area of study but there is more research on it in Europe. I would suggest looking into Medical Physics programs that are not accredited. The accredited ones are more focused on covering material related to current clinical work a medical physicist would be responsible for in a hospital. The non-accredited ones are more research based, focusing on applying physics to treating/detecting diseases. I think you should try looking for Medical Physics programs that collaborate with European labs.

I'm still an undergrad, but the grad program in my school for Medical Physics collaborates with the Medical Physics Department in a lab in Germany which does Hadron and Heavy-ion therapy. You do your courses at the school, but your research can be done in Germany...and my department wants to send people over there. My prof works on nano-particle thermal therapy and has collaborations in Europe (there are some European labs advancing in nano-fabrication). His grad student does purely theoretical work, computational modeling but he sent him to France to get all the experimental data. My school is in Canada, but I'm sure you'll find something like that in the US.

newton2012
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Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 5:38 pm

Re: Ideas on Getting into Particle Therapy

Post by newton2012 » Fri Aug 13, 2010 5:49 pm

Hey everyone, I will be finishing this coming May with a M.S. from an CAMPEP accredited program. I decided that rather than pursuing the MP residency, I want to pursue a PhD involving particle therapy (high-LET radiation therapy). I am just having a tough time finding actual program to apply to where their research is in particle therapy. I have applied to University of Texas - Houston (MD Anderson), but would like to apply to some other places. I would also like to consider programs outside MP departments because I already have my CAMPEP accreditation - perhaps physics. I too also heard that the Europeans are doing work in this area, but can't find any institution. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.



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