All students have the opportunity to conduct a thesis research project based on their own interests, ranging broadly across radiation therapy, imaging, and other fields. Faculty advisors from Duke Kunshan University and Duke University will provide sufficient guidance during their research project. Click here to read about faculty and their research fields. Advisors are not assigned but instead chosen by mutual agreement by the student and the faculty member(s).

MS thesis and scholarship projects are components of our medical physics graduate education that are popular among students. The skills and talents that these efforts develop include critical thinking, problem-solving, intellectual courage, confidence, research skills, presentation skills, writing, collaboration, project management, research aptitude, and scholarship. As these skills and talents evolve, students gain great depth of understanding in the medical physics of their chosen project area.

DKU Medical Physics students work on thesis or scholarship projects variously at Duke University in the United States, at Duke Kunshan University in China, and at other locations in China.

At DKU, the medical physics laboratory has 11 advanced radiation-therapy treatment-planning systems and other radiation-oncology software donated by Varian Medical Systems, one of the world’s leading global companies for radiation therapy. Also available to students is the DKU virtual computing system that provides powerful computation capabilities for research projects. At hospitals in the region surrounding DKU, many students take internships and/or perform thesis or scholarship-project research. These experiences are important in developing scientific and clinical ability and in understanding career paths for medical physicists in China. Students also intern at companies in this medical-technology-rich region of China.

Some students pursue thesis and scholarship projects at Duke University. Located in Durham, North Carolina, USA, Duke University includes one of the world’s leading university medical research centers. It is for example a top recipient of research funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). DKU medical physics students have worked on projects with many different faculty members of the Medical Physics Graduate Program at Duke University, which is one of the largest medical physics graduate programs in the United States and which interacts closely with the DKU Medical Physics Graduate Program.

Duke University and Duke Kunshan University enjoy a close collaboration, which is enhanced by a high-speed internet connection between the two universities and by frequent interaction of faculty, staff, and students at the two universities.

The DKU medical physics program works with students to help them develop a thesis or scholarship project that is a good fit to their career interests. These projects range broadly across radiation therapy, imaging, and other fields. Advisors are not assigned but are instead determined by mutual agreement of the student and the faculty member, in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies.