The Biomedical Physics M.S./Ph.D. Program is an AAPM-accredited interdepartmental graduate program supported by the Departments of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, Radiation Oncology, and Radiological Sciences. It offers training in four specialties: biophysics, medical imaging, medical physics, and radiation biology. Specialized facilities for training and research are available in the departmental clinical laboratories, the UCLA-DOE Laboratory of Structural Biology and Molecular Medicine, the Image Processing Laboratory, and a number of associated hospitals. Highly specialized equipment includes two biomedical cyclotrons, the radiation oncology cyclotron, the picture archiving and communication system (PACS), four positron emission tomography (PET) scanners, the stereotactic gamma irradiator, and many VAX and SUN computers with image processor systems. In addition, clinical equipment is available to supervised students for practicums and research purposes. The program prepares students for careers as independent researchers or professional medical physicists, and graduates are qualified to work in a clinical environment and to pursue board certification as medical physicists or to apply for a clinical medical physics residency.
Graduates in biomedical physics can expect to engage in any combination of research, teaching, clinical service, and consultation. Biomedical physicists are usually employed in hospitals frequently associated with a medical school, where they are members of the academic staff. They are also in demand in high-technology private industry engaging in research and development of diagnostic equipment. In government agencies, biomedical physicists are involved in the formulation and enforcement of regulations applied to the use of radiation in health care delivery.