Zacariah Labby

Biography

I am a full Professor and Director of Clinical Physics in the Department of Radiation Medicine. As a medical physicist in radiation therapy, my role is to ensure the safe, effective and accurate delivery of radiation to our patients as well as the protection of the general public from our treatment activities. I am the lead physicist for our stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) program. Through these efforts, I spend most of my time clinically working with patients requiring treatment for primary or metastatic intracranial disease, ensuring the most accurate treatments possible. SRS treatments include the smallest and highest dose-per-fraction treatments delivered anywhere in radiation therapy, so my focus is on highly conformal delivery and planning techniques.

My research interests include methods to improve the accuracy of treatment alignment and delivery strategies, with the goal of reducing the total spatial uncertainty in SRS treatments, and to develop new treatment planning strategies that result in very robust yet efficient treatment plans for SRS patients. I also work with graduate students and faculty in medical physics on research efforts to more precisely measure doses from modern treatment systems.

I also serve as a mentor in our Radiation Oncology Physics Residency Program, working with residents during treatment system commissioning and quality management activities, during the radiosurgery rotation, and during the shielding rotation. Working with young medical physicists during their transition from graduate student to independent clinical physicist is a highly rewarding experience, and my ultimate goal is to create a learning environment where our graduating residents can positively impact the radiation oncology patient condition by enabling the highest quality of care everywhere they go.