“Our first year builds a solid foundation for our day-to-day clinical duties. It helps us find our niche in the busy Mayo clinical practice and instills confidence in our clinical decision making.”
Cenji Yu, Ph.D.
Physics resident, Class of 2026

Brachytherapy Didactics

“Mayo has a very active brachytherapy program and offers many different treatments. By having dedicated didactic time, you're able to develop a good understanding of brachytherapy and what is performed here before jumping into the busy clinical practice.” – Justine Dupere, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2024

Image-guided Radiation Therapy

"The delivery of highly conformal dose distributions with reduced margins affords superior healthy tissue sparing but is accompanied by an increased risk of a geometric miss during treatment. This necessitates the use of sophisticated image guidance techniques to improve target localization. This rotation provides a comprehensive understanding of the suite of Image guidance technologies—both on-board and externally mounted radiographic systems, surface guidance, and many others—implemented in the clinic.  A combination of hands-on labs, clinical observations, and stellar rotation mentors ensure an engaging and enriching learning experience.” – Zach Stottler, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2025

Dosimetric Systems

“This rotation is the perfect start to "get your hands dirty" with some of the core concepts and measurements we make as medical physicists.” – Dalton Griner, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2026

External Beam Treatment Planning

“We get hands-on experience creating treatment plans for real patients! Working for the patients truly helped me fine tune my treatment planning skills.” – Daiki Hara, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2026

“The Treatment Planning rotation is an invaluable experience, allowing residents to follow a patient from simulation to treatment. After the initial phase of guided practice plans, residents become well-equipped to manage clinical plans under dosimetrist supervision. This rotation encompasses a wide range of case types, which provide us with broad exposure and comprehensive experience. Witnessing our own crafted plans get treated is an immensely rewarding experience. Furthermore, this rotation lays an excellent foundation for understanding the medical physicist's role in plan checks, reinforcing our pivotal place in the patient care pathway.” – Xueyan Tang, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2025

External Beam QA

“I love how this rotation is structured. The questions spark self-learning and really guide you towards a deep understanding of not just how, but why we do the QA the way we do it.” – Dalton Griner, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2026

“Our rotation mentor really guides us to understand the importance of each QA without forcing us to repeatedly perform the QA.” – Daiki Hara, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2026

Physicist of the Day (POD)

“As POD, you're the first person who gets called if there's a problem on the machine. This rotation prepares you to troubleshoot problems by learning from other physicists and biomedical engineers. You gain a better understanding of LINAC operations and TrueBeam systems as well." – Justine Dupere, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2024

Plan Check

“This rotation provides us with extensive training on one of the main tasks of a medical physicist. We put everything we have learned about the clinic together to ensure the safety of patient.” – Cenji Yu, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2026

Radiotherapy Simulation

“The Radiotherapy Simulation rotation is a unique blend of didactic learning, labs, and hands-on experiences that delve deeply into CT operations and virtual simulation software. The variety and complexity of the tasks offer a fascinating and challenging learning journey, making it an enriching experience for a resident.” – Xueyan Tang, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2025

Respiratory Motion Management

“This rotation provides us with hands-on experiences managing breathing motion during simulation. We are trained to make independent clinical decisions with our physics expertise. ” – Cenji Yu, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2026

“In year 2, residents begin to cover independently in the clinic, where we work to hone our clinical decision-making skills. During second year, residents independently spend a full quarter rotating through brachytherapy—a highlight of the residency—where we work directly with the care team while training to cover both HDR and LDR procedures in one of the busiest brachytherapy practices in the country. Despite the busy clinical schedule, the second year provides a sweet spot in the program where residents can continue to progress in research and work to implement their findings into the clinical practice.”
Zach Stottler, Ph.D.
Physics resident, Class of 2025

Brachytherapy Clinical

“The brachytherapy rotation was one of my top favorites. The organization of both the didactic and clinical aspects made the experience immensely worthwhile. The rotation mentors maintained an open-door policy, readily addressing all questions, whether fundamental or complex. I truly enjoyed covering brachytherapy, playing a crucial role in ensuring patient safety while collaborating with the brachytherapy team to provide the highest quality of care for our patients.” – Shaquan David, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2025

IMRT Quality Assurance

“The IMRT QA rotation in the Mayo Medical Physics residency program is an excellent educational experience. Residents shadow medical physics assistants in performing patient-specific QA and observe medical physicists conducting thorough checks. Beyond shadowing, residents also have the opportunity to independently use film and MatriXX for measurements. This hands-on experience, combined with expert mentorship, ensures residents develop a comprehensive understanding of IMRT QA procedures.” – Xueyan Tang, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2025

Protons – Gantry Physicist of the Day (GantryPOD)

“During the Gantry Physicist of the Day (GantryPOD) rotation, residents work alongside with experienced proton physicists at one of the world’s largest proton centers, gaining valuable clinical experience in scanned proton beam therapy. The rotation consists of a didactic core and a clinical component. Through a series of didactic sessions, residents establish a foundational understanding of treatment planning, dosimetric uncertainties impacting treatment delivery, and beam dosimetry. Through the clinical portion of the rotation, residents shadow physicists perform daily/monthly QA, chart checks, and cover treatments that require physics support, like SBRTs. By the end of the year 2, residents credential for GantryPOD coverage; this affords the resident the rare opportunity to gain a full year of clinical proton therapy experience by the end of their residency.” – Zach Stottler, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2025

Protons – Dosimetry Planning

“The Proton Treatment Planning rotation is an invaluable learning experience. Residents receive didactic lectures from experienced proton physicists, gaining deep theoretical knowledge. Additionally, they have the opportunity to shadow dosimetrists during the planning process, which provides practical insights into the proton treatment planning workflow. This rotation enhances understanding of the physicist's role in proton therapy, equipping residents with the skills and knowledge necessary for excellence in this specialized field.” – Xueyan Tang, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2025

Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy

“The SBRT (Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy) rotation is an exceptional program that focused on improving our understanding of the fundamentals of SBRT; including dose and fractionation, stereotactic localization, plan evaluation, immobilization, and respiratory management. Additionally, it allowed residents to work alongside staff physicists, covering SBRT simulation and treatment cases to ensure we thoroughly understood the workflow for site-specific cases. The well-organized didactic and clinical aspects, combined with the open-door policy of the mentors, made this rotation incredibly valuable. I truly enjoy being apart of the SBRT coverages, ensuring patient safety while collaborating with the photon SBRT team to deliver the highest quality care.” – Shaquan David, Physics resident, Class of 2025

Treatment Machine Calibration (TG-51)

“The TG51 rotation involves extensive reading and in-depth discussions with the rotation mentor, ensuring a thorough understanding of the protocol. Residents independently perform TG51 using a real water tank, providing hands-on experience that is invaluable for future commissioning work. This rotation not only solidifies theoretical knowledge but also builds practical skills essential for a career in medical physics.” – Xueyan Tang, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2025

Total Skin Electron Therapy

“The TSET rotation at Mayo Clinic provides residents with rare opportunity to get hands-on experience with Total Skin Electron Therapy. Through a mix of didactic sessions and treatment shadowing, residents build a strong understanding of the foundational physics underpinning TSET and the various facets necessary to commission a TSE program in the clinic and support this rare treatment modality.” – Zach Stottler, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2025

“The program is also unique in that we are a three-year program so about a third of our time is spent on research and it’s integrated throughout the entire three years. This allows us to have the time to work on meaningful projects and see the results of our work implemented into the clinic. The additional year also gives us that much longer to continue covering different things in the clinic so by the time we’re finished, we can work as confident, independent physicists.”
Justine Dupere, Ph.D.
Physics resident, Class of 2024

Intraoperative Radiation Therapy

“As part of the Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT) rotation, we were able to participate in multiple IORT treatments with a Clinic and Mobetron system. We also learned about the different QA procedures compared to standard external beam therapy.” – Justine Dupere, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2024

Dosimetry Physicist of the Day

“DosPOD is the dosimetry physicist of the day and is a clinical coverage that is the first call for dosimetry related issues. In this rotation, we learned how to address HU overrides, implantable devices, fetal dosimetry, outside records, and how to help dosimetrists troubleshoot with any planning difficulties.” – Justine Dupere, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2024

Monitor Unit Calculation

“Since a fundamental understanding of monitor unit calculations is vitally important for clinical medical physicists, this rotation gets into some of the nitty-gritty details of the theory and practice using the AAPM TG-71 report as the primary reference.” – John Antolak, Ph.D., Rotation mentor

Shielding and Room Design

“I learned a lot during my shielding rotation, both about how to perform the standard shielding calculations as well as the general philosophies and assumptions. Residents are typically given a shielding related project that is currently being worked on in the department, which allows us to compare our results with another board certified physicist to see if our calculations are accurate. I found this to be very valuable.” Jay Brooks, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2024

Stereotactic Radiosurgery

“At Mayo we have the opportunity to experience busy gamma knife and linac-based SRS programs. We have a good amount of time dedicated to the gamma knife clinic to learn planning, QA, and patient treatment delivery from experts in the field. We spend a good amount of time on Gamma Knife treatment planning, which I felt was particularly valuable.” – Jay Brooks, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2024

Total Body Irradiation

“The Total Body Irradiation (TBI) rotation is very hands on and involves more patient contact than other rotations. We're able to participate in the treatment planning process, which involves taking the patient's measurements and sketching the compensator. Then we perform the MU calculations and build the compensator that will be used for the treatments. We also participate in placing diodes for in-vivo measurements during treatment.” – Justine Dupere, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2024

Treatment Machine ATP, Survey, and Commissioning

“During machine commissioning rotation, residents will have the opportunity to commission a new radiation treatment device. During my rotation I was on the team that commissioned a newly installed Varian Edge. This was an extremely valuable rotation as it allowed me to see the entire process of acceptance testing, commissioning, and machine go live for a modern LINAC.” – Jay Brooks, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2024

Treatment Planning System (TPS) Commissioning

“The TPS rotation is heavily didactic with a rounded understanding of what goes into the TPS planning systems in terms of understanding the difference between dose calculation algorithms and what is needed to commission your TPS for dose calculation. It also covers aspects of TPS QA. Part of the rotation is to suggest a QA test to be implemented in the clinic” – Abdou Abdel-Rehim, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2022

Optional Rotations in Year 3

Orthovoltage

“The optional orthovoltage rotation is an opportunity to gain experience with and understand the considerations involved in treating with this relatively uncommon modality.” – Yue-Houng Hu, Ph.D., Physics Resident, Class of 2021

Regional Practice

"Mayo Clinic has multiple regional sites across Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the residency allows you time to discover what it would be like to work at a smaller practice. I had the opportunity to shadow at the Northfield Clinic to see how physicists operate day-to-day in this type of clinic. Their integration into the clinical team was much more tight-knit than at the large practice." - Eric Brost, Ph.D., Physics resident, Class of 2022