Meet Us

Treating patients with ionizing radiation is a collaborative process in the Department of Radiation Medicine, involving all members of the care team. An essential part of that collaboration is the relationship between radiation oncologists and medical physicists, ensuring that treatment plans are created and delivered as prescribed on therapy equipment that is performing to specifications. As a teaching institution, Loma Linda University offers a high-quality residency program for medical physicists, one that emphasizes not only the concepts of medical radiation physics but does so in the health-care context alongside our residency program for radiation oncologists. In many ways, residents in these two programs learn together. The department and university are proud to offer this residency for medical physicists, and we welcome you to apply.

I did not plan to be a medical physicist. Indeed, at the time I received my PhD in physics, I had never heard of medical physics and did not know that such a discipline existed. It was only by chance that I learned of it, but when I did, it created a powerful appeal to my mind and heart. In sum, the whole idea that I might use my education and knowledge to contribute to the healing process for others gripped my imagination and spurred a strong desire to do something about it. 

Accordingly, I went back to school, earned a degree in medical physics, passed my board examinations, and became a qualified medical physicist. In doing so, I found my calling. That was more than two and a half decades ago. 

As a medical physicist I fulfilled clinical, academic, administrative, and research and development responsibilities. I enjoyed each of these roles, but my true passion was teaching and mentoring. Therefore, driven by that passion and desiring to give back to my profession, I decided to start a residency program in medical physics at Loma Linda University Health (LLUH). It was a labor of love, culminating with our first resident joining the program in 2015.

The overarching purpose of our program at LLUH is to train and mentor medical physicists to become competent professionals who support physicians employing ionizing radiation to serve the needs of patients afflicted with cancer. In doing so, the medical physicists contribute to patients’ healing. Further, in accordance with LLUH’s mission “to make man whole,” the residency program in radiation oncology physics continues the healing and teaching ministry of Jesus Christ.