Welcome to Biomedical Physics at Stanford!

Application Deadline

December 1, 2023

Stanford University is uniquely positioned to translate fundamental discoveries in basic science to understand biology in humans and lead in academic discoveries of novel therapeutics and diagnostics.

Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, Former Chair, Department of Radiology, Stanford University

The Biomedical Physics (BMP) Graduate Program is a PhD training program hosted by the Departments of Radiology and Radiation Oncology within the Stanford University School of Medicine. The objective of the PhD in BMP is to train students in research focused on technology translatable to clinical medicine, including radiation therapy, image-guided therapy, diagnostic, interventional, and molecular imaging, and other forms of disease detection and characterization with molecular diagnostics. Given the evolution of modern medicine towards technologically sophisticated treatments and diagnostics, there is a need for well-trained leaders with this educational background and the skills to conduct meaningful and significant research in this field. Stanford University has a rich tradition of innovation and education within these disciplines, with advances ranging from the development and application of the medical linear accelerator towards radiation treatment of cancer to the engineering of non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging having been pioneered here.

Thanks to the efforts of faculty in these departments and the support of department chairs Dr. Quynh Le and the late Dr. Sam Gambhir, we created the BMP program in 2021 to train doctoral students within the world-class research environment at Stanford. In fall 2021 we will solicit our first round of applications for students. The first incoming class beginning in fall 2022 will take courses spanning traditional and emerging topics in medical physics and perform original research under the mentorship of experts in this evolving discipline. This is the first PhD program at Stanford housed in clinical departments and will be leveraged this position at the intersection of basic and clinical science to train students in translational research. We look forward to helping you achieve your educational goals within our program and to training the next generation of leaders in this burgeoning field.

Daniel Ennis, Ted Graves, Sharon Pitteri, and Daniel Spielman
BMP Program Directors

The Biomedical Physics program is an essential component of Stanford Medicine’s commitment to excellence in education, scientific discovery, bench-to-bedside research, and clinical innovation.

Dr. Lloyd Minor, Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine