A regional consortium of cancer care organizations has announced its 2022 medical physics residency training program graduates, which include Troy Jacobs, MS, Tiffany Lee, MS, Jose Martinez, MS, and Nelson Salas, PhD.
In order to address a nationwide shortage of medical physicists, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center (MBPCC) in Baton Rouge, La., established a medical physics residency training consortium in 2009. The group received accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Educational Programs in 2012, and currently includes training sites at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, Willis-Knighton Cancer Center in Shreveport, La., and the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Miss.
“Since its inception, this consortium has produced extremely talented and highly-trained medical physicists, and this year is no different,” said Jonas Fontenot, PhD, MBA, chief operating officer and Dr. Charles M. Smith chief of physics, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center. “With the skills and training acquired through this residency program, these four graduates are ready to make an immediate impact in the medical physics field, both across the country and abroad.”
Jacobs joined the residency program at Willis-Knighton Cancer Center after receiving a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, and a Master of Science in Medical Physics from LSU, whose graduate program is also supported by MBPCC. Jacobs will remain on the staff at Willis-Knighton as a medical physicist.
Lee joined the residency program at the Cancer Center after receiving a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Master of Science in Medical Physics from Indiana University. Lee has accepted a position with Northwest Medical Physics in Anchorage, AK.
Before joining the residency program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jose Martinez received a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Puerto Rico and a Master of Science in Medical Physics from Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. Martinez will be returning to Puerto Rico where he will practice as a clinical medical physicist.
Nelson Salas, PhD, received a Doctorate in Physics from the University of Miami and a certificate in Medical Physics from the University of Florida prior to joining the residency program at Mary Bird Perkins. Salas will be working as a medical physicist at Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center in Jacksonville, Fla.
Mary Bird Perkins was the first cancer center in Louisiana to establish a medical physics residency training program, which is required for eligibility for board certification from the American Board of Radiology.
Together with its partners at Willis Knighton Cancer Center and the University of Mississippi Medical Center, 37 medical physics residents have completed their training with the consortium. Those graduates have experienced a 100 percent job placement rate and enjoyed great success in completing their board certification examinations.
Pictured here, Tiffany Lee, M.S.; Troy Jacobs, M.S.; Jose Martinez, M.S and Nelson Salas, Ph.D. receive their certificates after graduating from the medical physics residency training program, an education partnership consisting of Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, Willis-Knighton Cancer Center in Shreveport, La., and the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Miss.