Department of Medical Physics

Medical Physics was established as a specialty focus within the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, creating the first and only basic science department of its kind in the country. This research intensive department has approximately 30 core faculty and 30 affiliate faculty members, many with cross or affiliate appointments in one or more clinical departments, including Radiology, Human Oncology, Psychiatry, and Medicine. Several faculty also have cross appointments in the School of Engineering, through Biomedical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. Work in the department ranges from basic discovery and invention, through to research products and methods production, to clinical trials and industry collaboration and translation.

With an incoming class of 24 students in 2022, the department has the largest cohort of doctoral students within Medical Physics in the country, and trains a smaller MS cohort in Medical Physics and Health Physics. The didactic training includes an extensive set of courses in Diagnostic and Therapeutic systems, which guide the student towards their accredited degree from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Educational Programs (CAMPEP). In the decades since formation, department alumni have gone on to lead many institutions throughout the country in aspects of Medical Physics.