Research Training in Medical Physics

 描述(由申请人提供)：医学物理学领域的博士前培训计划(“医学物理研究培训”)代表着这一成功且长期存在的研究生计划的26至30年的竞争性更新。博士学位的培训是通过医学物理学研究生项目进行的，该项目隶属于芝加哥大学医学物理委员会。该计划自20世纪50年代中期以来一直在培训学生，目前通过21名教员培训师的专职参与，培训了20名研究生博士前实习生。拟议的项目寻求为每年6名博士前学生提供资金。芝加哥大学的医学物理学研究生课程为学员提供了一套完整的课程，包括严格的课程，以及医学成像和放射治疗物理学方面的指导研究。接触科学道德和负责任的研究方面的教学机会和必修课程，是博士前培训的一个基本要素。医学物理学研究生课程的质量不断提高，包括(1)课程要求的重组，(2)第一年研究轮换要求的修订，目的是让学生在该计划最多一整年(四个学年)后致力于实验室进行他们的论文研究，(3)创建一门专门针对医学物理学实习生特定领域需求的必修伦理课程(《医学物理学家的生物伦理学》)，(4)开发新的课程(健康物理学和分子成像)，以涵盖已成为国家标准一部分或学生感兴趣的医学物理学领域的各个方面，以及(5)开办医学物理学职业发展讲座系列。该计划的教职员工继续解决到毕业的时间长度问题。医学物理是一个广泛的领域，需要在从成像物理到放射治疗物理的广泛主题上的能力。因此，医学物理学研究生计划的学生(相对于其他学科的同行)必须学习更多的课程，以获得跨越该领域的核心知识。然而，当向学生呈现一个及时毕业的明确过程时，学生和项目的最大利益是符合的。这种旨在缩短学生平均毕业时间的明确过程对学生和教师都很有用，因为毕业时间必然取决于双方的合作：学生需要表现出主动性，他们必须从教师导师那里寻求及时的指导，而教师必须让自己成为导师，他们需要让学生对推进研究项目负责。已经实施了对该方案的改进，并继续监测其有效性，以此作为缩短学生平均毕业时间的措施。拟议的培训计划是为了确保未来的医学物理学研究人员在进入学术界或行业之前接受适当和完整的培训。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed pre-doctoral training program in the field of medical physics ("Research Training in Medical Physics") represents a competitive renewal for Years 26 to 30 of this successful and long-standing graduate program. Training toward the Ph.D. degree is conducted through the Graduate Program in Medical Physics, which functions within the Committee on Medical Physics at The University of Chicago. This program has been training students since the mid-1950s and is currently training 20 graduate student pre-doctoral trainees through the dedicated participation of 21 faculty trainers. The proposed program seeks funding for six pre-doctoral students per year. The Graduate Program in Medical Physics at The University of Chicago provides trainees with a complete curriculum of rigorous courses combined with mentored research in medical imaging and radiation therapy physics. Exposure to teaching opportunities and required courses in scientific ethics and the responsible conduct of research forms an essential element of the pre-doctoral training. The quality of the Graduate Program in Medical Physics has continued to evolve with improvements including (1) reorganization of the curricular requirements, (2) revision of the first-year research rotation requirement with the intent of having students commit to a lab for their thesis research after at most one full year (four academic quarters) in the Program, (3) creation of a required ethics course ("Bioethics for Medical Physicists") tailored specifically to the domain-specific needs of medical physics trainees, (4) development of new courses (in health physics and molecular imaging) to cover aspects of the field of medical physics that have become part of national standards or have become of interest to students, and (5) initiation of a medical physics career development lecture series. The Program faculty continues to address the length of time to graduation. Medical physics is a broad field that requires competence in a wide range of topics from imaging physics to radiation therapy physics. Therefore, students in the Graduate Program in Medical Physics (relative to their colleagues in other disciplines) must take a greater number of courses to gain the core knowledge that spans the field. Nevertheless, the best interests of the students and the Program are served when students are presented with a clear process toward a timely graduation. Such a defined process to reduce the average time it takes students to graduate is useful for both students and faculty, since time to graduation necessarily depends on the cooperation of both groups: students need to demonstrate initiative and they must seek timely guidance from their faculty mentor, while faculty must make themselves available as mentors and they need to hold students accountable for advancing the research project. Improvements to the Program have been implemented and continue to be monitored in their effectiveness as measures to reduce the average time it takes students to graduate. The proposed training program is required to insure that medical physics researchers of tomorrow have proper and complete training prior to entry into academics or industry.