Hollywood Comes to the AAPM: AAPM Wins AIP Grant to Fund Diversity Videos

Did you know that in most Physics programs, women compose just 20% of the entire program (1)? However, in Medical Physics, our graduate programs' students are 42% female (2)! It's time we advertised how diverse and equitable we are becoming!

So just in time for the Oscars, Drs. Eduardo Moros (Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL) and Julianne Pollard-Larkin (MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX) were awarded, on behalf of AAPM's Science Council, funding for their American Institute of Physics (AIP) Venture Partnership Fund (VPF) proposal for the production of a set of videos focused on attracting a new, diverse pool of future medical physicists to our field.

Filming will begin at this year's Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX. Drs. Moros and Pollard-Larkin have an interesting take on what diversity, equity and inclusion means and looks like in our field. The videos will show the full “spectrum” of physicists who are already actively changing the public's views of what a typical physicist looks like. Currently, they are seeking AAPM member volunteers who are willing to tell their stories of how they entered the field, what makes them unique and how they belong in this field. The sole goal and unifying theme of the films will be “You Belong”, that there is room for each and every one of us talented medical physicists to take part in one of physics' best kept secret subspecialties.

If you are an under-represented Medical Physicist and or are unique—not the physicist stereotype—and wish to be included in this project, please reach out to Drs. Moros or Pollard-Larkin.

References:
1. https://www.aps.org/programs/education/statistics/womenstem.cfm
2. http://www.sdampp.org/documents/2017AnnualGraduateReport.pdf

Call for AAPM Grand Challenge Proposals

The AAPM Working Group on Grand Challenges (WGGC) is charged with promoting the conduct of grand challenges designed to assess or improve the use of medical imaging in diagnostic and/or therapeutic applications. The WGGC is now accepting proposals from groups that wish to host a challenge in advance of the 2020 Annual Meeting. The WGGC will identify up to two proposals that merit sponsorship and assist the organizing groups to move forward with the challenges. The timeline for a proposed challenge should allow for the conduct and conclusion of the challenge in time for presentation at the 2020 Annual Meeting.

Please visit the website to download the proposal application template. Proposals should be emailed to Shayna Knazik by 5:00 PM EDT on Friday, June 21, 2019