To meet increasing demand by hospitals, clinics, and industry for trained medical physicists, LSU's Department of Physics & Astronomy offers a Master of Science degree with a concentration in Medical Physics. This degree is CAMPEP-accredited. The M.S. degree program seeks to train students for a career in clinical medical physics, including successful completion of professional certification exams by the American Board of Radiology or similar boards. Students graduating from the medical physics concentration are well prepared to enter a medical physics residency program or to continue their training in a PhD program.<br><br>Students spend their first year learning the fundamentals of medical physics: radiation detection and instrumentation, radiation protection, radiation biology, and additional topics. In the second year, in additional to completing advanced courses in medical physics, medical physics students apply the knowledge gained in the classroom through a clinical training practicum, working side-by-side with medical physicists, medical dosimetrists, and radiation oncologists at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center.<br><br>Students in the medical physics concentration complete a thesis based on hypothesis-driven research during their second and third years. Thesis research culminates in a public presentation and thesis defense. The results of the thesis are expected to be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.