Division of Medical Physics

Welcome from the program director

On behalf of our faculty and staff of medical physics division, Iwould like to welcome you to the University of Toledo’s Medical Physics webpage. We hope you find the information here useful and get most of your questions answered. 

Medical Physics is a great career and our program offers everything you need to become a medical physicist.  You have already overcome what is arguably the biggest hurdle in your career path to become a medical physicist – learning about the career. Most of us did not grow up wishing to be a medical physicist and found out about the field quite late, including myself. Most of us in the field had no knowledge of medical physics until we stumbled across it. For me, I was about 2-3 years into a Ph.D. in physics, specializing in magnetic thin films, when I transferred into the medical physics track. It is one of the best decisions I ever made. 

Our profession’s lack of visibility to many undergraduate physics students has obvious consequences; we struggle to recruit the number of medical physics trainees needed by our professional and our patient’s. And of course, the economic effects of this are that the field has responded by increasing salaries. To recruit the graduates of our program requires higher salaries today that at any point in the past, growing much faster than inflation. We surveyed the graduates of a recent class and found that the average salary that they accepted for their very first job, prior to gaining board certification, was around $155,000. With medical physics jobs going unfilled and salaries increasing, you have arrived at an opportune time to start your training and enter this field. And I have no doubt you find this a fulfilling and rewarding career. 

The Medical Physics program at The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences has been in existence for nearly four decades and has produced many professionals who are leaders in the field today. Our goal is to continue producing intellectually stimulated individuals who will possess advanced knowledge in the field of medical physics and would be prepared to excel as clinical physicists, academics, and researchers in the field of medical physics. We remain proactive about achieving this goal through seeking, attracting and retaining graduate faculty of the highest calibers and maintaining the highest standards of excellence in our didactic course works, clinical clerkship and other scholarly programs.

David Pearson, Ph.D., DABR

Department of Radiation Oncology
Associate Professor
Director of UToledo Medical Physics Residency Program