Distinguished Alumni Awardees

Each year a distinguished alumna or alumnus is given an award at the WSU Alumni Gathering during the annual AAPM conference. The award is voted on by current and former faculty and is both an expression of gratitude for all that the alum has done for WSU, and an acknowledgement of their contribution to the field of Medical Physics overall.

2024 Distinguished Alumnus

Otto Muzik originates from Vienna, Austria where he obtained a PhD in Radiation Physics from the Technical University of Vienna in (at that time) emerging field of brain research using Positron Emission Tomography (PET). This work was conducted at the Nuclear Research Center Julich in Nordrhein-Westphalia, Germany, which was one of the first centers with access to this new technology. After completing his PhD, Dr. Muzik conducted post-doctoral research in cardiac PET imaging at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 1994, Dr. Muzik joined the Wayne State University Medical School in the Department of Pediatric Neurology, where he assumed the role of a senior physicist in the newly opened Children's Hospital of Michigan PET Center. Since then, he established himself as an expert in the quantitative analysis of PET data, specifically with respect to quantitative integration of multimodality neuroimaging data obtained from PET, MRI and electrophysiology in order to improve the understanding of neural mechanisms underlying various neurological defects during critical developmental periods. Dr. Muzik started teaching in the WSU Medical Physics program in the mid 90’s at the behest of Colin Orton and has been covering the diagnostic portion of the curriculum since, viewing the realization of each student’s potential as The core mission of a University.

“Find your vision and make it work”

2023 Distinguished Alumnus

Janice Campbell received both her Master of Science and PhD degrees in Medical Physics from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan following a Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Medicine from Ferris State University. This exposure to all things medical physics was instrumental in developing her passion for teaching. She has been a professor and instructor of multiple medical physics topics at Wayne State University as well as neighboring Oakland University every year since graduation, teaching over 100 courses. She has also served as a mentor to medical students throughout their four-year Capstone research projects at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine. Dr. Campbell is board certified by the American Board of Radiology in Therapeutic Radiological Physics. Her professional and research interest has more recently focused on radiopharmaceutical therapy and dosimetry. She has been the corporate medical physicist for Diagnostic Radiology and Molecular Imaging at Beaumont Health in Michigan for 25 years. Janice has been active in the Great Lakes Chapter of both the AAPM and HPS, serving in leadership positions over many years. She served on the AAPM Board of Directors as the Great Lakes Chapter Representative from 2009 until 2011 and was honored to become a Fellow of the AAPM in 2016. She has been a member of the AAPM PET-CT Quality Assurance Task Group from 2009-2019, the task group on hepatic Y-90 microsphere therapy presently and the AAPM-RSNA QIBA committee since 2011. Dr. Campbell, with her students, has published many articles, abstracts, and presentation proceedings in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Campbell states that having the opportunity to teach many graduate and undergraduate students, residents, fellows, and technologists and educate patients about cancer and its treatment with radiation has been one of her most rewarding roles in life.

Mark Y

2022 Distinguished Alumnus

Mark Yudelev received his PhD degree in Medical Physics from Wayne State University School of Medicine. He served on the faculty of the WSU Medical Physics Graduate program from 1990 till 2007, when retired with the rank of Associate Clinical Professor. During his tenure Dr. Yudelev taught graduate course in Physics of Radiation Therapy and conducted Physics of Radiation Therapy Lab. He supervised numerous students in their independent study courses, MS and PhD projects. He participated and conducted research in fast neutron therapy. After retiring from WSU he continued as Senior and later as Chief Medical Physicist at McLaren-Macomb, Clarkston and Port Huron. There he established CAMPEP accredited Radiation Oncology Physics Residency Program affiliated with Karmanos Cancer Center. Under his leadership five MS Medical Physicists have successfully graduated from the program and went on into clinical practice as ABR certified Medical Physicists. Mark Yudelev is a Fellow of AAPM.

"I have learned from all my teachers, but I have learned much more from my students.

-Ancient Hebrew sage."

Patrick McDermott

2019 Distinguished Alumnus

Patrick McDermott is the Director of Physics Education at Beaumont Health and as such he is the program director for the physics residency program, he teaches physics to medical residents in radiation oncology and he is involved in medical dosimetry training. He arrived at Wayne State as a student in 1991 with a PhD in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Rochester, where his thesis involved a theoretical study of neutron star oscillations. He received his MS in Radiological Physics from Wayne State in 1993. By that time he had been appointed as a Research Associate in the Radiation Oncology Department. In 1995 he became an Associate Professor. He taught in the medical physics graduate program for 13 years and enjoyed (almost) every minute of it.

Dr. McDermott has won a number of teaching awards over the years for teaching undergraduate physics students and residents in radiation oncology. He was elected a Fellow of the AAPM in 2015. He has published over 25 papers in peer reviewed journals along with two textbooks. The textbooks are The Physics and Technology of Radiation Therapy (with Colin Orton) and Tutorials in Radiotherapy Physics Advanced Topics with Problems and Solutions.

"It was my goal, from the time I was a teenager, to teach physics. To paraphrase Edwin Hubble, I would rather be a third rate physicist than a first rate doctor or lawyer. One of my favorite quotes is from Shakespeare: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio. Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Jay Burmeister

2018 Distinguished Alumnus

Jay Burmeister was appointed to the faculty of the Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1999 after completing his PhD in Medical Physics under the direction of Richard Maughan and Chandra Kota, with mentorship from Colin Orton, Gary Ezzell, and Paul DeLuca. He has led the Medical Physics Graduate Program since 2003, and has served as Chief of Physics for Karmanos Cancer Center and Director of the Radiation Oncology Physics Residency Program since 2007. He has served in numerous service and leadership roles for the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, American Society for Radiation Oncology, the American Board of Radiology, the Commission on the Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs, and the Society for Directors of Medical Physics Programs, and was elected Fellow of the AAPM in 2011. He has taught over 250 graduate students in medical physics and provided research mentorship for nearly 50 of these students.

"I have been fortunate to learn from incredible mentors in medical physics at WSU, including those listed before me on this page and too many more to name here. I consider it a great honor to pay this mentorship forward and to be able to participate in the education and training of the outstanding students here at WSU."

Michael Joiner

2017 Distinguished Alumnus

Michael Joiner remains Head of Radiobiology at the Karmanos Cancer Institute and the Graduate Officer of the Division of Radiation Oncology, Department of Oncology at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, where he teaches. He is also an internationally recognized radiobiologist and researcher who has spent more than 40 years investigating how clinical radiotherapy can be made more effective using both manipulations of the radiation delivery schedule and also by the addition of chemical or physical modifiers of effect.

Michael is an expert particularly in quantifying radiation effects, the medical physics of radiation delivery and application of high-LET radiotherapy. He discovered low-dose hyper-radiosensitivity, a major factor determining the extent of DNA repair following radiotherapy exposure. He has published more than 160 NCBI-cited peer-reviewed articles.

Before joining Wayne State University in 2001, Joiner spent 22 years at the Gray Laboratory in the UK, where he headed Experimental Oncology. Prior to this, he received his Masters degree from Cambridge University and his PhD in 1980 from the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. In 1999 he was made an honorary member of the Royal College of Radiologists for his services to them in teaching and examination.

Mike loves teaching. He is especially proud to have taught radiobiology continuously for more than 30 years, and continues to teach and direct, the international ESTRO Basic Clinical Radiobiology course which he gives all over the world. He serves as lead editor of the textbook, "Basic Clinical Radiobiology" now in its 5th edition.

"I am very proud indeed now to be labeled as distinguished, but in honesty this is only possible because of all the more distinguished physicists I work with here day on day"

Donald Peck

2016 Distinguished Alumnus

Donald Peck received his MS in Radiological Physics from Wayne State University in 1992. After obtaining his ABR certification in Diagnostic Radiological Physics in 1995 he returned to Oakland University and completed his PhD under Joe Windham in 1999. He worked at Henry Ford Health System in the Department of Radiology since 1989 where he was the Division Head of Physics and the Vice Chair of Research and Physics. He was a faculty member for the WSU Medical Physics Graduate Program for over 20 years. Dr Peck has served as a member or chair for many committees within the AAPM, on exam committees in Radiography and Mammography for the ARRT and on the Radiology Residents Diagnostic Radiology Physics exam committee for the ABR. He has been elected Fellow of both the ACR and AAPM.

"To paraphrase Richard Feynman; to really understand something you must be able to explain it to an audience that cannot follow the detailed mathematics or science. I've always tried to make this my goal and my experience with both the faculty and students at Wayne State University has allowed me to meet this goal."

2014 Distinguished Alumnus

Richard Maughan received his doctoral degree from the University of Birmingham in England. He has held appointments at the Gray Laboratory in England, Wayne State University and the University of Pennsylvania where he is currently Professor, Vice Chair, and Director of Medical Physics. Dr. Maughan served as a faculty member for WSU for nearly 20 years and led the development and implementation of fast neutron therapy at WSU. He would then go on to lead the implementation of proton therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also been very active within the AAPM and CAMPEP and has been elected a Fellow of the AAPM.

"If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack."

2013 Distinguished Alumnus

A PhD graduate in Medical Physics from Wayne State University and former faculty member and director of clinical physics here for over 15 years, Dr. Ezzell currently serves as the Chief of the Physics Division at Mayo Clinic in Pheonix, Arizona. He was involved in the early development and clinical implementation of HDR brachytherapy. He has actively served in numerous capacities within the AAPM since 1996 including Secretary, President, and Chairman of the Board of the AAPM, and has been elected Fellow of the AAPM.

"I really enjoyed teaching the radiation therapy physics classes at WSU - the students were highly motivated because this was to be their profession, and being a part of their development was a highlight of my career.

2012 Distinguished Alumnus

A PhD graduate in Radiation Physics from the University of London, England, Dr. Orton has held academic appointments at New York University School of Medicine, Brown University and, of course, Wayne State University where he is currently Professor Emeritus in the School of Medicine. Dr. Orton led the physics division and graduate program for over 20 years. In addition, he has served as President of the AAPM, ACMP, IOMP, ABS, IUPESM, and IMPCB. He has published over 20 books and over 300 papers and chapters and served as the Editor of Medical Physics for 8 years. He has been elected Fellow of the AAPM and ACMP and has been awarded both the Marvin M.D. Williams Award and the William D. Coolidge Award by the AAPM.

"Running the Wayne State University medical physics education programs was one of the highlights of my career. I loved teaching and interacting with the students and felt privileged to have been able to play such a role in the development of their careers."

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