West Virginia Wesleyan College

Department of Physics and Engineering

Alumni in Medical Physics and Health Physics

Medical Physics and Health Physics are professions that involve the same fundamental science. Medical physicists use radiation to diagnose and treat disease. Health physicists focus on safely using radiation. Health Physics Health physicists work in industry, environmental regulation, education, enforcement, and research. At a nuclear power reactor, a health physicist may supervise as many as 80 technicians and radio chemists. At a hospital, a health physicist ensures the safety of patients and medical staff. They may work in nuclear medicine, radiation therapy, or radiology. Environmental health physicists work to protect the public from unnecessary exposure to environmental radioactivity such as radon gas. The American Board of Health Physics provides certification for health physicists, and they report an average salary of about $100,000. James Abraham earned an M.S. in Health Physics from Colorado State University, where he now works as the radiation safety officer. Martin Johnson works as a health physicist at Lockheed-Martin.

Medical Physics Medical physicists work in nuclear medicine, radiation treatment of cancer, computerized tomography, and imaging by X-rays, ultrasound, and MRI. The American Association of Physicists in Medicine reports an average salary of $110,000 without board certification and $150,000 with board certification. Kate Turner (2011) is completing her M.S. in Medical Physics at Duke University. Nick Graham earned an M.S. in Physics at Virginia Tech and is a radiology physicist at Associates in Medical Physics in Medina, Ohio. His duties include audits and visits to hospitals to give their annual state radiological survey. The company provides American College of Radiology accreditation for CAT scans, MRIs, nuclear medicine, and mammography. Mike Curry earned an M.S. in Medical Physics from East Carolina State University. His clinical experience was at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Mike works at the Mercy Cancer Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Chera Rodgers (2012) is starting her second year in Medical Physics at the University of Cincinnati. Peter Sandwall is completing his Ph.D. in Medical Physics at the University of Cincinnati. Amy Powelson Patrick earned an M.S. in Medical Physics at Vanderbilt University. She is presently employed as a medical physicist at the Vanderbilt Center for Radiation Oncology. Ben Thompson is Chief Medical Physicist at Saratoga Hospital in New York. Ben recently visited Wesleyan to give a presentation to our Engineering Physics Club.