Post-Doctoral Research Position in Medical Physics:
The Department of Radiation Oncology at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN invites applications for a two-year post-doctoral research fellowship in the Division of Medical Physics. The successful candidate will focus on development and testing of imaging tools for MRI-only radiotherapy workflows in upper abdomen, specifically: development and/or validation of 1) motion characterization and assessment tools using MRI (i.e., “4D-MRI”); 2) development and/or validation of novel synthetic CT. The project development team will include medical physicists, radiation oncologists, medical dosimetrists and informaticians; the selected individual will also collaborate directly with MRI scientists working in industry. This project also has a human subjects’ research component, with the successful candidate helping to support a Mayo Institutional Research Board-approved clinical pilot study. Thus, this project would provide a comprehensive foundation for launching a future career in medical physics, as well as in any related field.
Requirements:
Qualified candidates must have earned a Ph.D. in physics, medical physics, engineering or computer science (or related field involving machine learning) and must demonstrate a strong knowledge base working with medical images, image processing, custom software development and machine learning. Preference will also be given to candidates available to start employment in July-August of 2026 and who are verbally committed to staying in this role through June, 2028 (or approximately two years).
As part of the application packet, candidates must include a cover letter with their curriculum vitae. Candidates must also provide contact information (e-mail address and telephone number) for three professional/educational references. (Candidates’ references will only be requested after initial candidate screening.)
Facilities and Environment:
The Department of Radiation Oncology at Mayo Clinic Rochester is large, dynamic and diverse, with an exceptional breadth of clinical practice.
Staffing Summary:
The medical physics division consists of approximately 75 technical staff (physicists, physics residents and medical physics assistants), one third of whom focus on proton therapy.
Technologies offered:
The external beam radiotherapy photon practice treats greater than 250 patients per day utilizing an Edge Linac, two Ethos Linacs, three TrueBeam Linacs and a Gamma Knife ICON. Treatment procedures employ all conventional radiation therapy modalities, adaptive radiation therapy, and special procedures that include IORT (Linac and Mobetron), TBI, TSET, SRS, SBRT, SFRT, and (kV) Orthovoltage.
The Proton Beam Therapy Center, which opened in 2015, treats almost 100 patients per day (on average) and is supported by a Hitachi synchrotron with four spot scanning gantries and a single fixed beam room. Next year, an additional Hitachi synchrotron with two spot scanning gantry treatment rooms will be added to the facility, significantly expanding the number of patients we can accommodate.
The Brachytherapy practice includes HDR (PHDR, GYN, Breast, Sarcoma, Rectum and Bile Duct) and LDR (PSI, Eye Plaques, and Cardiac) and is equipped with two dedicated GE CT Simulators and three HDR afterloaders (Bravos).
Our proton and photon beam practices are supported by five Siemen’s CT Simulators and a 3.0T GE MRI (Simulator) with a second GE 1.5T MRI (Simulator) to be installed and commissioned in early 2027.
Additional educational opportunities:
The Mayo Graduate School offers a CAMPEP-accredited medical physics certificate program. Individuals with non-CAMPEP degrees (i.e., with non-medical physics Ph.D.s) that successfully graduate from this certificate program quality to compete for the medical physics clinical residency matching program. Medical physics clinical residency is a requirement for pursuing a career as an ABR-certified clinical medical physicist. Voluntary participation in this optional program will be strongly encouraged for the successful candidate, should they wish to pursue a career in medical physics.
Radiation Oncology Contacts (for questions):
Erik J. Tryggestad, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Medical Physics, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Consultant, Department of Radiation Oncology
Eyesha Younus, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medical Physics, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Senior Associate Consultant, Department of Radiation Oncology
Qualified candidates must have earned a Ph.D. in physics, medical physics, engineering or computer science (or related field involving machine learning) and must demonstrate a strong knowledge base working with medical images, image processing, custom software development and machine learning. Preference will also be given to candidates available to start employment in July-August of 2026 and who are verbally committed to staying in this role through June, 2028 (or approximately two years).
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