Douglas W. Arthur, M.D.

Professor, Department Chairman

Department of Radiation Oncology

Douglas Arthur received his medical degree from the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1989. After completing his residency training in radiation oncology at VCU in 1994, he went on to a clinical fellowship at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and then joined the faculty at VCU. His clinical and research interests include brachytherapy and management of breast, genitourinary malignancies and soft tissue malignancies. Dr. Arthur is a member of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and a fellow of the American Brachytherapy Society.

Emma Fields, M.D.

Associate Professor; Director, Residency Program

Department of Radiation Oncology

Emma Fields received her medical degree and internship training at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston before completing her radiation oncology residency at the University of Colorado in Denver. Dr. Fields specializes in the treatment of gastrointestinal and gynecologic malignancies. Her clinical expertise is in the delivery of external beam radiation therapy with both intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and 3D techniques, stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and brachytherapy. Dr. Fields is an active member of the VCU Multidisciplinary Gastrointestinal Tumor Clinic, Multidisciplinary Gynecological Tumor Board and the Hepatocellular (liver) Multidisciplinary Tumor Group. Having published or contributed to numerous scientific articles, Dr. Fields regularly presents her research at national scientific meetings. She is also an active member of professional organizations such as the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the American Brachytherapy Society (ABS) and the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Timothy Harris, M.D. Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Department of Radiation Oncology

Timothy Harris received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. His Ph.D. in cellular and molecular medicine focused on the interaction between cancer and the immune system. He completed both his internship in internal medicine and residency in radiation oncology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital before joining the faculty at VCU. Dr. Harris’ clinical interests include the management of brain, spine and pediatric malignancies and he has clinical expertise in the delivery of stereotactic radiation to the central nervous system (CNS) and body. His clinical and translational research interests include combining immunotherapy with radiotherapy and the application of novel technologies and combined therapies in the management of CNS and pediatric malignancies. He’s also an active member of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the Children’s Oncology Group (COG).

Monica M. Morris, M.D.

VCU Affiliate; Clinical Professor

Department of Radiation Oncology

A native of California, Monica Morris received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from Stanford University and her medical degree from the Baylor College of Medicine in 1993. After completing a transitional internship year at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Dr. Morris completed her residency at Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was named chief resident during her final year. Her clinical practice focuses on the treatment of thoracic, breast and pediatric cancers, and her research interests include radiation late effects and factors influencing individual differences in radiosensitivity.

Bridget Quinn, M.D. Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Department of Radiation Oncology

Shiyu Song, M.D. Ph.D.

Professor

Department of Radiation Oncology

Shiyu Song received his medical degree in China and went to the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital as a research fellow in 1989. He then received his Ph.D. in cancer biology from the University of Wisconsin, where he studied the mechanism of carcinogenesis by tumor viruses, particularly human papillomaviruses. After completing his internship at the Marshfield Clinic (formerly Saint Joseph’s Hospital), he went to the University of Wisconsin Hospital for his radiation oncology residency. Dr. Song joined the faculty at VCU in 2004, and his clinical interests include head and neck cancers, lymphomas, lung cancer and central nervous system. His clinical research involves the application of new technology such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy and combined therapies in the management of head and neck cancer.

Alfredo I. Urdaneta, M.D.

Assistant Professor

Department of Radiation Oncology

Alfredo Urdaneta received his medical degree at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in 2005, followed by research fellowships at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania. As a research fellow he participated in the development of breast and esophageal tumor registries. After two years of residency training in internal medicine at the Saint Raphael Campus of Yale New Haven Hospital he completed his radiation oncology residency at VCU. Upon completion of his training, Dr. Urdaneta became a faculty member at VCU. His clinical and research interests include prostate cancer, breast cancer, high-dose rate brachytherapy, and immunotherapy.

Elisabeth Weiss, M.D.

Professor

Department of Radiation Oncology

Elisabeth Weiss received her medical degree and medical doctorate degree in Germany in 1990 and 1991, respectively. After attending programs in Switzerland and Germany, she completed her residency in radiation oncology in 1997. Dr. Weiss was on the faculty at the University of Göttingen from 1997 to 2009, and she received an academic teacher’s degree in 2004. She began performing research at VCU in 2004 and joined the faculty in 2008. Her clinical interests include treatment of lung cancer and benign diseases, and she has special expertise in stereotactic body radiotherapy and respiration management. Dr. Weiss’ research interests include clinical trials in lung cancer and translational research into four-dimensional aspects of radiotherapy and development of image-guided adaptive radiotherapy.

Christopher R. Johnson, M.D.

Associate Professor

Department of Radiation Oncology

Christopher Johnson is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the VCU School of Medicine. He received his pathology and radiation oncology training at VCU’s MCV Campus (1983 – 86). His clinical interests and investigations focus on alternative schedules of radiation therapy for the treatment of malignancies of the head and neck.

Todd Adams, M.D.

Assistant Professor

Department of Radiation Oncology

Todd Adams received his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts before completing his residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Adams’ primary clinical interest is in limiting the side effects of radiation treatment. His academic interests involve participating in community outreach and researching cost-effectiveness in cancer care. Dr. Adams has clinical expertise in all forms of external beam irradiation including three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT), intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).

TJ Wallace, M.D.

Assistant Clinical Professor

Radiation Oncology

Michael G. Chang, M.D.

Service Chief, VCU Affiliate

Radiation Oncology

Michael Chang received his medical degree from the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1997. After completing his internal medicine internship at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, he came to VCU for his radiation oncology residency. During his training, he traveled to Amsterdam for a rotation at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. Dr. Chang’s clinical research interests focus on the use of stereotactic radiotherapy in the treatment of central nervous system, thoracic and breast malignancies and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for prostate cancers.

Hann-Hsiang "George" Chao, M.D. Ph.D.

VCU Affiliate

Department of Radiation Oncology

Dr. Chao received his M.D and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014. His PhD dissertation focused on DNA damage repair pathways in breast cancer. He completed his internal medicine internship and radiation oncology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was also Chief Resident in radiation oncology, before joining the department at the Richmond VA Medical Center. He has a clinical focus on head and neck, lung, genitourinary, lymphoid malignancies, and palliative radiation. He is currently site PI for VA multi-institutional trials in prostate cancer.

Sarah Hazell, M.D.

VCU Affiliate

Department of Radiation Oncology

Dr. Hazell received her bachelor's degree in cognitive science from University of Virginia and her medical degree from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine internship at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore and her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She specializes in breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, and GI malignancies. Her research interests include financial toxicity of cancer therapy, improving health care delivery models, palliative care, and quality of life. She has special interest in end of life care as well as Women’s Health within the VA. She is a Richmond native and lives here with her husband and son.

Matthew E. Schutzer, M.D.

Residency Program site director, VCU Affiliate

Department of Radiation Oncology

Dr. Schutzer is a graduate of The Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University and completed his training in radiation oncology from Virginia Commonwealth University. His training started with his internship at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Dr. Schutzer is the residency program site director at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center and an affiliate assistant professor at VCU. He specializes in head and neck cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer and GI malignancies. Research interests include value-based healthcare, prostate brachytherapy and quality of life after prostate cancer treatment.

Phone: (804) 828-7232

Email: matthew.schutzer@vcuhealth.org

Christopher L. Bartee

Research Associate

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and research interests: Mr. Bartee began his career in 1983 with the United States Air Force, where he received extensive training in radio-frequency production and radar. In 1990, Mr. Bartee joined Varian Oncology Systems as a senior field service engineer, where he was trained primarily on state-of-the-art medical linear accelerators. Since 1998, Mr. Bartee has been the senior clinical engineer for the Department of Radiation Oncology, and his activities include management of all the medical linear accelerators and simulators and research in intensity-modulated radiotherapy, electronic portal imaging and respiratory gating.

Phone: (804) 628-0977

Email: chris.bartee@vcuhealth.org

Bruce Curran, M.S., M.E.

Associate Professor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and research interests: Bruce Curran received his M.E. from the Thayer School of Engineering (Dartmouth College) in 1982 and an M.S. in Computer Science from Northeastern University in 1993. In 1978, he joined Tufts Medical Center, promoted to Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology and Radiology in 1984. In 1995, he moved to Nomos Corporation, becoming Vice-President for Clinical Affairs (2001) and Technology (2002). While at Nomos, he was involved in the development of Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) and clinical use of Monte Carlo techniques for treatment planning. He returned to academics in 2003, joining the faculty at the University of Michigan. In 2008, he moved to Providence RI, becoming Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Brown University and Associate Chief Physicist at Rhode Island Hospital. He joined the VCU faculty in 2014. Mr. Curran's research interests are in improving interoperability of computer systems in radiation oncology. He is a founding member of DICOM Working Group-7 and the IHE-RO Technical Committee. He will be President-elect of the AAPM starting in January, 2015, becoming President in 2016, and Chairman of the Board in 2017.

Phone: (804) 675-5000

Email: bruce.curran@vcuhealth.org

Rabten Datsang, M.S.

Instructor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Mr. Datsang received a B.A. in Physics and Mathematics from The University of Virginia in 2007, and his M.S. in Medical Physics from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011. Mr. Datsang joined the clinical medical physics faculty in the VCU Department of Radiation Oncology later that year. His primary clinical interests are in LDR and HDR brachytherapy treatments of prostate cancer, as well as in improving the quality assurance practices in radiation therapy.

Phone: (804) 628-3437

Email: rabten.datsang@vcuhealth.org

Christopher Guy, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and interests: Chris earned his PhD in Medical Physics at VCU in 2017. His dissertation work focused on deformable image registration of the lung, specifically with improving registration accuracy when large geometric changes occur such as resolution of atelectasis. Chris began his residency at VCU in July 2017 where he continues to pursue research in addition to his clinical training.

Email: christopher.guy@vcuhealth.org

Priyanka Kapoor, M.S.

Instructor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Ms. Kapoor graduated from University of Delhi, India with a Master's degree in Physics in 2007 and received a Master's degree in Medical Physics from Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai, India in 2008. She started her career as a Clinical Medical Physicist with a commercial hospital in India and worked with them for 2 years. Before joining the Department of Radiation Oncology as a Clinical Physicist at VCU, she worked at University of Florida as a Physicist-in-training and was part of several research projects like Peer Review System and Automated Plan Evaluation System. A member of VCU faculty since April 2014, her research interests are Quality improvement with Treatment Planning.

Phone: (804) 675-5000 x3098

Email: priyanka.kapoor@vcuhealth.org

Rishabh Kapoor, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and research interests: Mr. Kapoor received his M.S. in Medical Physics from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland in 2007. In 2008, he joined TSG Integrations, a commercial treatment planning software company in India. While at TSG, he was involved in several projects such as designing computer algorithms for inverse planning, developing automated plan QA software, and developing software solutions for ophthalmology and radiology, etc. In 2010, he joined University of Florida as Technical Manager of the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise initiative in Radiation Oncology (IHE-RO). Being at UF, he was leading the development of multiple software systems that improved the efficacy of radiation therapy such as the Peer Review software system. He joined the VCU faculty in 2012 and is working for the National Radiation Oncology program in the VHA system. In his assignment at VHA, Mr. Kapoor is developing and implementing programs that will ensure safe, effective, state-of-the-art radiation treatments to our veterans and bring VHA Radiation Oncology Services (ROS) to a position of national excellence. He has been working on implementing the Radiotherapy Incident Reporting and Analysis database for VHA that will keep a log of incidents, near misses / good catches in radiation therapy and helps the community learn and derive best practices from this database. Mr. Kapoor's research interests include improving interoperability of computer systems and developing pathways.

Phone: (804) 675-5983

Email: rishabh.kapoor@vcuhealth.org

Siyong Kim, Ph.D.

Professor; Director, Clinical Medical Physics

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and research interests: Dr. Kim received his Ph.D. in medical physics in 1997 from the University of Florida, Gainesville. Subsequently, he underwent the clinical physics residency training for 2 years and then became an assistant professor at the University of Florida. From 2006 to 2013, he worked at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida as faculty and led in establishing an image guided radiation therapy program. Dr. Kim joined the VCU Department of Radiation Oncology in September 2013 as a professor. He is interested in developing dose uncertainty model, respiratory motion management strategy, compact CT, and MR simulator.

Email: siyong.kim@vcuhealth.org

Tianjun Ma, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and interests: Dr. Ma received his PhD degree in Medical Physics from University at Buffalo in 2018 and completed his residency training at Cleveland Clinic in 2020. Prior to joining VCU Physics group, he worked at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. His research interests are mainly programming oriented. He is interested in respiratory motion modeling for integrated dose estimation, and data science / automation in Radiation Oncology.

Phone: (804) 628-8156

Email: tianjun.ma@vcuhealth.org

Jatinder Palta, Ph.D.

Professor; Chair, Division of Medical Physics

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and research interests: Dr. Palta received his Ph.D. in medical physics in 1981 from the University of Missouri in Columbia. Prior to coming to VCU's Massey Cancer Center, he was Professor and Chief of Physics in the Department of Radiation Oncology at University of Florida, Gainesville, FL., where he achieved national and international recognition for his clinical research and educational activities in advanced radiotherapy techniques, quality assessment, and quality assurance. Dr. Palta is a recipient of several NIH awards in medical informatics and optimization research. He has served on NIH study section and the Boards of both AAPM and ASTRO. In his assignment at VHA, Dr. Palta is developing and implementing programs that will ensure safe, effective, state-of-the-art radiation treatments to our Veterans and bring VHA Radiation Oncology Services (ROS) to a position of national excellence. He provides subject matter expertise to the VHA National Radiation Oncology Program on policy development, criteria and evaluation factors of equipment, staffing, resource needs, and development of comprehensive guidelines for medical physics.

Email: jatinder.palta@vcuhealth.org

Timothy Ritter, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and research interests: Timothy Ritter completed his PhD at Penn State University in the area of high frequency ultrasound imaging. He has training and experience in diagnostic and therapeutic medical physics, and he is board certified in both specialties from the American Board of Radiology. He is also a veteran of the U.S. Military, having achieved the rank of Major in the United States Air Force. Dr. Ritter was appointed a Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine in 2016 while he was a faculty member at the University of Michigan Department of Radiation Oncology. He joined the Virginia Commonwealth University team in 2017. In addition to clinical work and teaching, Dr. Ritter is the lead physicist on the VALOR trial comparing surgery to stereotactic body radiation therapy for patients with early stage lung cancer.

Email: timothy.ritter@vcuhealth.org

Mihaela Rosu-Bubulac, Ph.D.

Professor; Director, Medical Physics Residency

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and research interests: Dr. Rosu-Bubulac joined the Department of Radiation Oncology in 2007. She received her Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences from the University of Michigan in 2005. Following graduation Dr. Rosu-Bubulac was a postdoctoral fellow in the Radiation Oncology Department at the University of Michigan and her research represented one of the first comprehensive studies of the influence of motion in three-dimensional and four-dimensional treatment planning in deformable organs using Monte Carlo dose computation engine. Her current research interests include further investigations of the motion effects on dose calculation, treatment delivery and clinical outcomes.

Phone: (804) 628-8163

Email: mihaela.rosu@vcuhealth.org

Ford Sleeman, Ph.D.

Scientific Programmer

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Mr. Sleeman received his M.S. in Computer Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007. During his M.S. study, he developed an autopilot control system for small unmanned aerial vehicles. After obtaining his M.S., he worked for SENTEL Corporation, an engineering services company headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. As a software engineer at SENTEL, Mr. Sleeman wrote software to integrate sensors into physical security systems for government facilities. A member of the VCU faculty since 2007, his research interests include control systems, parallel computing, embedded systems, Big Data, and machine learning.

Phone: (804) 628-7778

Email: william.sleemaniv@vcuhealth.org

William Y. Song, Ph.D.

Professor; Director, Graduate Program

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and research interests: Dr. Song received his PhD in Medical Biophysics from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 2006, and completed CAMPEP-accredited medical physics residency training at the University of Florida in 2008. After completion of training, he joined the faculty at the University of California San Diego from 2008-2014 and at the University of Toronto from 2014-2017, before joining Virginia Commonwealth University in 2017. His research interests include brachytherapy, robotics, MRI guided therapies, X-ray based image reconstruction and processing, and novel applicator designs.

Advisees: Currently accepting students

Phone: (804) 628-3457

Email: william.song@vcuhealth.org

Dorin A. Todor, Ph.D.

Professor; Director, Brachytherapy Program

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and research interests: Dr. Todor joined the Clinical Physics faculty of the Department of Radiation Oncology in 2001. Prior to that, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where he was involved in radiological physics research in brachytherapy, the creation of a novel method for real-time intraoperative dosimetry of permanent prostate implants, and external beam portal image processing and enhancement. Dr. Todor received his Ph.D. from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA., where his work included collaboration with the Radiation Oncology and Biophysics Departments at Eastern Virginia Medical School. His clinical activities include LDR and HDR brachytherapy for prostate and breast cancer treatment. Currently funded by a grant from the American Cancer Society, Dr. Todor is actively involved in a number of research projects dealing with intraoperative assessment of LDR implants, the automatic tracking of markers in EPID images for lung treatments and real-time imaging techniques for HDR breast catheter implants. His long-term goals are the development of a brachytherapy-like system for the planning and delivery of gene therapy and the establishment of new techniques for the analysis of dose distributions in tissues.

Phone: (804) 628-7415

Email: dorin.todor@vcuhealth.org

Melodee Wolfe, M.P.

Director of Clinical Physics, South Hill VA

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and research interests: Ms. Wolfe graduated from East Carolina University with a Master's degree in Physics in May 1992. She began her career as a clinical medical physicist with Mountain Radiation Oncology in Asheville, NC and was there from 1992 to 2000. After leaving Asheville, she joined the faculty at East Carolina University in Greenville NC and continued to provide clinical physics support for their external beam, stereotactic and brachytherapy programs. Ms. Wolfe also taught clinical physics on a graduate and undergraduate level and was heavily involved in quality assurance, ACR accreditation and Radiation Safety while at ECU. In February 2013, Ms. Wolfe joined the Virginia Commonwealth University faculty and serves as the Director of Medical Physics at the South Hill VA facility. Her main interests are in the areas of patient safety and quality improvement.

Email: melodee.wolfe@vcuhealth.org

Yan Wu, M.S.

Instructor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and research interests: Mr. Wu received an M.S. from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation at Tianjin University in Tianjin, China, in 1985 and an M.S. from the Department of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton in Southampton, United Kingdom, in 1992. He lectured and conducted research at both universities as well as at the University of Portsmouth in Portsmouth, United Kingdom, prior to working as a research associate in the Department of Radiation Oncology at William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan. A member of the VCU faculty since 1999, his research interests include delivery techniques of intensity-modulated radiotherapy, optimization, signal processing and neural networks.

Phone: (804) 628-0662

Email: yan.wu@vcuhealth.org

Lulin Yuan, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and interests: Dr. Yuan received his PhD degree in experimental nuclear physics from Hampton University in 2002, and worked as a research fellow for several years before completing his residency training at Duke University in 2017. Over the years, Dr. Yuan’s research has focused on knowledge guided treatment planning to improve planning quality and efficiency. His research has made an impact on the optimization of IMRT planning, and has been published in peer review journals. It has also recently been commercialized by Varian Medical Systems. His current research efforts are along two directions; one is the application of the knowledge guided method to quality assure and quantitatively assess the fidelity of treatment plans, and the other is to expand the method to automate the whole RT planning process. Dr. Yuan is also interested in developing new methods and rapid learning processes to take advantage of growing treatment planning and treatment outcome data in radiation oncology.

Phone: (804) 628-5257

Email: yuan.lulin@vcuhealth.org

Lisha Zhang, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Medical Physics

Bio sketch and research interests: Dr. Zhang received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in 2004 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she focused on developing a Compton gamma-ray imaging probe for high resolution and high sensitivity imaging of prostate and breast. After graduation, she then joined the Radiation Oncology Department of Washington University in St. Louis for her medical physics residency training. She received comprehensive training in all aspects of clinical radiotherapy physics during her residency and joined the Department of Radiation Oncology at VCU in 2007. She left VCU in 2011 and rejoined the department in 2013. Her research interests include characterization of OBI photon spectrum and its impact on the reconstructed images and image guided high dose rate brachytherapy.

Email: lisha.zhang@vcuhealth.org

Chris Rabender, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Radiobiology

Kristoffer Valerie, Ph.D.

Professor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Radiobiology

Vasily Yakovlev, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Radiation Oncology, Division of Radiobiology

Mitchell S. Anscher, M.D.

VCU Affiliate

Department of Radiation Oncology

Phone: (804) 828-7232

Email: mitchell.anscher@vcuhealth.org

Thomas Eichler, M.D.

VCU Affiliate

Radiation Oncology