Abby Besemer
PhD, DABR
Associate Professor (CHS) | Director of the Therapy Medical Physics Residency Program
she/her/hers
Biography
2018 Physics Residency Alumna
I am a board-certified Medical Physicist and Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation Medicine at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. My primary focus is on educational initiatives, and I serve as the Director of the Medical Physics Residency program. I have a passion for teaching and sharing the fun world of medical physics with residents, students, and whoever else I am able to share my excitement with. I am also involved in helping improve medical physics education on the national level though committees within the AAPM, SDAMPP, CAMPEP, and ABR organizations.
My clinical and research interests include brachytherapy, radiopharmaceutical therapy, safety and quality assurance, and image guided radiation therapy. During my PhD work, I developed a Monte Carlo internal dosimetry platform and continue to collaborate with Bryan Bednarz’s RED lab group to use the platform to calculate patient-specific voxelized dose distributions for radiopharmaceutical pre-clinical and clinical trials. My other ongoing research projects focus on intraoperative ultrasound-guided prostate HDR, fiducial tracking for prostate SBRT, patient-specific IMRT QA, and incident learning. I also have an interest in global health and serve on several committees within the AAPM dedicated to providing educational resources and supplies to low- and middle-income countries.
Research interests
- Intraoperative ultrasound-guided prostate HDR
- Fiducial tracking for prostate SBRT
- Patient-specific IMRT QA
- Incident learning
Education
- Residency, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Therapeutic Medical Physics
- PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Medical Physics
- MS, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Medical Physics
- BS, Indiana University, Physics
- BS, Indiana University, Astronomy & Astrophysics
- BS, Indiana University, Mathematics