Download Department of Physics University of Vermont Where’s the Physics in Medicine?

Where’s the Physics in Medicine?
In 1895, just two weeks after he discovered X-rays,
Wilhelm Roentgen used this new technique to generate
an image of the bones in his wife’s hand. While his
wife was disturbed by this discovery, exclaiming that
“I have seen my own death!”, this represented the birth
of diagnostic radiology. Within a month of the
announcement of this discovery, X-rays were being
used by surgeons.
The rapid development of medical imaging technology
continues to this day, driven by technological
developments in seemingly unrelated fields. Advances
in computational and analytical techniques enabled the
first clinical X-ray computed tomography (CT) scan to
be performed by Godfrey Hounsfield in 1971; nuclear
magnetic resonance was first described by Isidor Rabi
in 1938, yet it was only in 1973 that Paul Lauterbur
and Peter Mansfield described a beautifully simple
way to generate images from the NMR signal, and
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was born; the
nuclear physics of electron-positron annihilation events
and coincidence detection led to the development of
positron emission tomography (PET). In addition to
diagnosing disease, physicists have important roles to
play in treatment. Cancers may be treated using
radiation, in which it is critical that a sufficient dose is
delivered to the tumor while minimizing collateral
damage to surrounding healthy tissue.
Recent
developments
such
as
intensity-modulated
radiotherapy use relatively simple physics concepts to
save lives.
I will give an overview of the basic physics underlying
many of these techniques, concentrating on medical
imaging and my own research area, MRI. UVM has a
well-equipped MRI research facility that is used for
developing new medical imaging technology, but can
also be used for non-human imaging. We actively
welcome new collaborations from UVM and beyond.
Department of Physics
University of Vermont
Theoretical and
Applied Physics
Fall 2014
Professor Richard Watts
Department of Radiology
University of Vermont
Wednesday
October 29, 2014
4:10 PM
Kalkin 003
Refreshments will be
available at 3:40 PM in
Cook Science A429
uvm.edu/physics
@uvmphysics