Student Achievements

AAPM/RSNA Fellowship Awards

We are thrilled to announce that two current MSMP students and one 2023 MSMP graduate were awarded the AAPM/RSNA Fellowship Award.  Each fellowship is a $10,000 award to be used toward a student's tuition or professional or research development.

• Lian Duan, MS '23:  AAPM/RSNA Doctoral Fellowship Award to pursue his PhD at MD Anderson
• Mario Gallardo, MSMP student:  AAPM/RSNA Master's Graduate Fellowship
• Elissa Khoudary, MSMP student:  AAPM/RSNA Master's Graduate Fellowship

AAPM Delaware Valley Chapter Young Investigator Symposium 2023

Mario Gallardo, MSMP student, tied for first place with his presentation, "A Method to Evaluate Cumulative Dose on TSET patients on Patient Finite-Element Models using Cherenkov Imaging."

Jiayi Liu, MS '23, tied for second place with her presentation, "Using Thin-Gap Transmission Ion Chamber and Faraday Cup to Characterize Ion Recombination Effect under UHDR Electron, Pulsed Proton and Quasi-Continuous Protons Beams." 

Hai Siong Tan, PhD, MSMP student, tied for second place with his presentation, "Modeling Electron and Proton FLASH with the Physiochemical Approach." 

Department of Radiation Oncology Chair's Summer Research Grant

Congratulations to the following students who were awarded the Chair's Summer Research Grant!  This grant is a $4,000 award to students doing research projects that will be completed over the summer.  Award recipients are required to submit a manuscript for publication. 

• Grace Chang, MSMP student
• Andrew Friberg, BE-PhD student
• Bolin Li, MSMP student
• Ellen Park, MSMP student
• Hai Siong Tan, PhD, MSMP student
• Weibing Yang, PhD, Certificate student

NSF Fellowship Award

Andrew Friberg, PhD in Bioengineering-Medical Physics Concentration student, received an NSF-sponsored fellowship to attend the 20th International Summer School on Bio Complexity in Crete, Greece in June 2023. 

MPGP Representation in PSOM's Biomedical Graduate Student Association (BGSA)

Mario Gallardo, MSMP student, was appointed to the role of Vice Chair of Master's and Certificate Programs (MaC) Student Affairs within the PSOM BGSA. In this position, he will work with the Chair to represent MaC students to the University and serve as acting Chair if the Chair is absent. 

Elissa Khoudary, MSMP student, was appointed to Vice Chair of Operations within the PSOM BGSA.  In this position, she will record the minutes of all BGSA executive board and general assembly meetings, report announcements to BGS students, and assume responsibility for maintaining the BGSA website. 

Other Awards

Dixin Chen, MS'23, was awarded the 2023 Radiosurgery Society (RSS) Member-in-Training Award. Recipients of this award receive a $1,000 prize, complimentary RSS membership for one year, and complimentary meeting registration. Dixin presented her abstract, "Revisiting Multi-leaf Collimator Leaf Width and Single-isocenter Multi-target Radiosurgery Plan Quality Using Latest Automated Dynamic Conformal and Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy Planning Solutions" at the 2023 RSS Scientific Meeting in Orlando, FL.

Lian Duan, MS'23, was awarded the AAPM Best Award. This Travel Fellowship is for a student, resident, or junior member of AAPM to attend the AAPM Annual Meeting.

Mario Gallardo, MS student, was the recipient of the 2022 Master of Science in Medical Physics Underrepresented Minority Scholarship.

Dixin Chen, MS'23, won a 2022 AAPM / RSNA Doctoral and Masters Graduate Fellowship. This award is sponsored by the AAPM Education & Research Fund and provides the winners with an award of $10,000.

Odalis Reyes, MS'23, was awarded the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Marie Curie Fellowship. This award provides scholarships for tuition and living expenses to selected female students studying toward a master's degree in nuclear-related subjects.

Odalis Reyes, MS'23, was the recipient of the 2021 Master of Science in Medical Physics Underrepresented Minority Scholarship.

Destinee Holloman, MS '22, was the recipient of the 2020 Master of Science in Medical Physics Underrepresented Minority Scholarship.

Ryan Kim, MS ’23, was published in the November 2022 Frontiers Oncology with his paper titled, “A Phenomenological Model of Proton FLASH Oxygen Depletion Effects Depending on Tissue Vasculature and Oxygen Supply”. Link to PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36518319/

Ahmad Sakaamini, PhD, Certificate ‘23, was published in the June 2023 Physics in Medicine & Biology with his paper titled, “An AI-based Universal Phantom Analysis Method Based on XML-SVG Wireframes with Novel Functional Object Identifiers”. Link to PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37267994/  

Weibing Yang, PhD, first year Certificate student, was published in the March 2023 SPIE Proceedings 12359 with his paper titled, “Multispectral singlet oxygen luminescent dosimetry (MSOLD) for Photofrin-mediated Photodynamic Therapy”. Link to SPIE Proceedings: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/12359/1235908/Multispectral-Singlet-Oxygen-Luminescent-Dosimetry-MSOLD-for-PHOTOFRIN-mediated-photodynamic/10.1117/12.2652590.full?SSO=1