AWARDS

Distinguished Program Director Award 2025 - Kristi Hendrickson, PhD, FAAPM

Dr. Kristi Hendrickson was named as the recipient of the SDAMPP Distinguished Program Director Award. After earning a PhD in physics from the University of Washington, Dr. Hendrickson completed an a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington before joining the faculty at the University of Washington in 2005. She has since then provided 20 years of exceptional service as a faculty member at this institution. Dr. Hendrickson developed the medical physics residency program at UW and has served as Residency Director since its inception in 2015. She has served as chair of multiple committees within the AAPM and as a member of its Board of Directors, having been subsequently honored as a Fellow of the AAPM. She has also served as chair of multiple committees for SDAMPP, and as SDAMPP President and Chair of the Board of Directors. Dr. Hendrickson received AAMC Medical Education Research Certificate and has been a tremendous contributor to, and leader within, our national organizations, and a tireless advocate for residency training within our profession.

Distinguished Educator Award 2025 - Joann Prisciandaro, PhD, FAAPM

Dr. Joann Prisciandaro was named as the recipient of the SDAMPP Distinguished Educator Director Award. After earning a PhD in physics from Michigan State University, Dr. Prisciandaro completed postdoctoral training at the Mayo Clinic and at the University of Michigan, after which she was appointed to the faculty at the University of Michigan and has served in that capacity for over 20 years. She has served as Residency Director, as Director of Brachytherapy Physics, and currently as Director of Clinical Physics for the University of Michigan. She has served on or chaired over 50 committees, working groups, and task groups for the AAPM including chairing the AAPM's Education Council, and has been honored as a Fellow of the AAPM. She has also served in an educational capacity for the Radiological Society of North America, American Society for Radiation Oncology, International Organization of Medical Physics, and Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs. Dr. Prisciandaro has made an enormous impact on the trainees within her institution and remarkable contributions to the educational infrastructure of our profession.

Lifetime Achievement Award 2025 – Gary D. Fullerton, PhD, FAAPM

Dr. Gary D. Fullerton was named as the recipient of the SDAMPP Lifetime Achievement Award. After earning a PhD in radiological physics from the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Fullerton served as a faculty member for nearly 50 years at multiple institutions including the University of Minnesota, the University of Colorado, and the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (UTHSCA). He served as Chief of Physics for the Department of Radiology and Vice Chair for the Division of Research at UTHSCA. His service to the profession has included chairing the American College of Radiology Continuing Education Committee, the Society of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scientific Program Committee, the Radiological Society of North America Physics Subcommittee and Research and Education Committee, the International Organization of Medical Physics Science Committee, serving as Secretary General of the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine, Editor of the Journal of MRI, President of AAPM, one of the founding members of SDAMPP, and as SDAMPP President and Chairman of the Board. He has had a tremendous impact on his many mentees and on medical physics education in general, and has contributed a remarkable amount to the science of medical physics and to our professional organizations.

Lifetime Achievement Award 2024 - Wayne D. Newhauser, PhD, FAAPM

Dr. Wayne Newhauser was named as the recipient of the SDAMPP Lifetime Achievement Award. After earning a PhD in physics from the University of Wisconsin and post-doctoral training in Germany, Dr. Newhauser joined Harvard Medical School before moving to MD Anderson in Houston where he was academic faculty until 2011 when he became the director of the Louisiana State University Medical and Health Physics graduate program. His 27 years of service as a faculty member across these prestigious institutions is a testament to his accomplishments. Dr. Newhauser's track record in medical physics education is outstanding. LSU's graduate education program boasts a nearly 100% placement rate of students into residencies, a testament to his leadership and dedication. He has supervised and advised numerous graduate students, resulting in their successful outcomes. Furthermore, his involvement in MBPCC's highly acclaimed therapy residency program further demonstrates his commitment to shaping the next generation of medical physicists. Many of Dr. Newhauser's former mentees have gone on to become leaders in medical physics education, research, clinical service, or administration.

SDAMPP Lifetime Achievement Award 2023 - James T. Dobbins III, PhD, FAAPM, FSPIE

Dr. James Dobbins was named as the recipient of the SDAMPP Lifetime Achievement Award. After earning a PhD in physics from the University of Wisconsin in 1985, Dr. Dobbins joined Duke University, where he remained until his retirement in 2022. In his long and illustrious career, he has been an energetic advocate for medical physics education, both at the graduate and residency levels. He was the founding director of a new graduate program in medical physics at Duke University in 2005, a position he held until 2015. Professor Dobbins became the founding president of SDAMPP in 2008 and later served as Chair of its Board of Directors. He was appointed as Associate Vice Provost at Duke University, after which he served as Strategic Advisor to the Provost until his retirement at the end of 2022.

Distinguished Educator Award 2023 - Jay W. Burmeister, PhD, FAAPM

Dr. Jay Burmeister was named as the recipient of the SDAMPP Distinguished Educator Award. After earning a PhD at Wayne State University in 1999, Professor Burmeister has continued to serve on the faculty at Wayne State University in a variety of roles. He developed and taught numerous courses for undergraduates, graduate students, and medical residents. He served as a thesis advisor for 39 MS and 15 PhD candidates and served on the thesis committee for an additional 19 PhD students. Dr. Burmeister served as the Director of graduate programs in Medical and Radiological Physics (MS, PhD, DMP, and graduate certificate) at WSU since 2003, as the Director of the Radiological Physics training program for medical residents since 2007 at WSU, and as the Director of the Medical Physics Residency Program at Karmanos Cancer Institute since 2007. He has trained over 20 medical physics residents and over 40 radiation oncology medical residents.

Lifetime Achievement Award 2022 - Maryellen L. Giger, PhD, FAAPM, FAIMBE, FIEEE, FSPIE, MNAE

Dr. Giger has had an extremely productive career in academic medical physics. She received her Ph.D. in medical physics in 1985 from the University of Chicago, where she has remained as faculty ever since. She has been the primary thesis advisor for 25 graduate students in the Graduate Program in Medical Physics and has served on the thesis committees of 13 other students.

She has published nearly 260 peer-reviewed papers, delivered over 360 invited presentations, served on AAPM EXCOM for 7 years, and served as the inaugural editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Imaging, among other accomplishments. She is the consummate consensus builder with a strong sense of collegiality; her willingness to defer to junior colleagues to let them shine rather than taking the spotlight herself is an admirable and selfless trait.

Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 - Kenneth R. Hogstrom, PhD, FAAPM, FASTRO, FACMP

Dr. Hogstrom has served as the Program Director for two graduate medical physics programs: MD Anderson and LSU, for a cumulative 26 years of service. He has been a mentor to 15 MS students, 4 PhD students, and 13 post-doctoral fellows, as well as many junior faculty and academic physicists. Ken’s research productivity has been substantial, with 119 publications, 7 invited articles, nearly 5 dozen invited conference presentations and invited lectures, and many conference proceedings and abstracts.

His service to AAPM is impressive, including serving as AAPM president, co-authored 5 AAPM reports and served on a multitude of committees from professional affairs to education to science to administrative. Ken has also been active in ASTRO, ACMP, ACR, AAMD, CAMEPE and the American Physical Society.

Dr. Hogstrom not only instills the expectation of service to the profession into his trainees, he also sets a high bar for us to reach to match him. He is a superb example of someone who has unselfishly devoted his life and career in support of young people entering the discipline of medical physics.

Distinguished Educator Award 2021 - John Antolak, PhD, FAAPM, FACR

Dr. Antolak has been the program director for the Mayo Clinic Medical Physics Residency and/or Fellowship from 2007-2017 and associate program director from 2018-present. John has been teaching courses and developing curriculum in the field of medical physics for the last 25 years. He has also served on several AAPM education committees, the CAMPEP board of directors and is currently CAMPEP Residency Education Program Review Committee chair. One of Dr. Antolak's major achievements over the last decade has been his work to establish the national match program in medical physics, a major positive change for the field nationally that has very quickly changed the landscape of medical physics recruiting to the benefit of applicants.

Dr. Antolak's contributions to education is also evident in the support he provides to program faculty. He makes a point of seeking out and involving those new junior faculty enthusiastic to make their own contributions to the program.