ICTP Welcomes Medical Physics Students

In the early days of 2018, ICTP welcomed to Trieste a new group of students of its Masters of Medical Physics (MMP) programme. Run in partnership with the University of Trieste, the two-year MMP accepts students from developing countries for a year of classes followed by a year of clinical training, and a thesis, before they return to their home countries with extensive new knowledge.

The programme aims to equip students with the skills necessary for them to be recognized as capable medical physicists anywhere in the world. MMP alumni have come from 46 different countries, and this new class will add to that number, representing Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Lesotho, and Mali for the first time in the programme. Nineteen students, six women and twelve men, traveled to Trieste from eighteen different countries for this programme.

Cancer is one of several major health challenges that medical physicists are needed to combat, and in the developing world the need is stark: 90% of cancer patients in low-income countries do not have access to up-to-date radiotherapy treatments, if any. The students trained in the MMP programme return to their home countries with the latest skills and a network of other experts, prepared not only to supply treatment but also to train other providers. The need for medical physicists is only increasing, with populations growing and life expectancies increasing worldwide.

The MMP students were welcomed by ICTP Director Feranando Quevedo, with remarks from MMP co-coordinators Renato Padovani and Luciano Bertocchi from ICTP. The students also heard from some of their instructors: Renata Longo, a professor from the Physics Department of the University of Trieste, and Mario De Denaro from the Medical Physics Department at Trieste Hospital.

The MMP programme enjoys generous support from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Welcome and congratulations to the new MMP students! Images from the ceremony can be found on ICTP's Flickr page.