Collin J Harlan

Collin has a strong academic background in both engineering and physics, including a B.S. focused in radiological health engineering with minors in nuclear engineering and mathematics from Texas A&M University; Collin is actively pursing a Ph.D. in medical physics at The University of Texas MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (Houston, TX, USA) and is currently in his third year of the program. Collin possesses a robust research background and a demonstrated history of excelling in world class academic and research institutions, including imaging physics graduate research involving translational hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging (HP MRI) at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX, USA) and veterinary physiology and pharmacology undergraduate research involving low dose ionizing radiation in small animals at Texas A&M University (College Station, TX, USA). Collin is currently a member of the Magnetic Resonance Systems Laboratory (MRSL) in the department of imaging physics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The focus of the MRSL is centered around the combination of engineering, physics and imaging sciences to develop new imaging technologies, namely metabolic imaging of hyperpolarized substrates using MRI, that improve our ability to measure and understand cancer and response to therapy in real-time. Collin is also the recent recipient of a T32 Cancer Nanotech Predoctoral Fellowship, funded by the National Cancer Institute through the National Institute of Health and awarded by MD Anderson Cancer Center & Rice University (Houston, TX, USA). The work supported by this funding will include the development of MRI sequences, hardware, and protocols in order to conduct the first 129-Xenon gas lung imaging experiments in animals and humans at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Collin's future academic and career goals include gaining admittance to and attending a CAMEP accredited medical physics residency program where he will specialize in either clinical diagnostic imaging physics or radiation therapy physics. Following residency, Collin would like to practice as a clinical medical physicist in a major academic setting or cancer center that allows him the ability to pursue research interests, teach graduate courses, and earn leadership roles within the institution in order to lead the next generation of medical physicists.