Jr. Medical Physicist
Thompson Proton Center
Monday, September 8, 2025
11:30 a.m.
Crowne Plaza Hotel
401 W. Summit Hill Drive, Knoxville
Price for buffet lunch is $15 (includes complimentary parking in the hotel garage).
If you plan to eat, please RSVP This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Friday, September 5 at noon.
If you choose not to eat, a charge of $7 will cover parking and event arrangements.
The formal meeting begins at 11:55 a.m.
Radiation therapy is the treatment of cancer with x-rays, gamma rays or charged particles, such as electrons or protons. As medical physicists we are closely involved with the patient’s care team, which often consists of multiple MDs, such as the radiation oncologist, medical oncologist and surgeon, as well as nurses, radiation therapists, dosimetrists and other staff.
This presentation will highlight different modalities used in radiation therapy, including a brief history for each modality and an overview of state of the art technology and applications. Modalities to be discussed are conventional photon therapy (x-rays), proton therapy (charged particles), and briefly Gamma Knife® (gamma rays) therapy. All these modalities are available for cancer treatment here in Knoxville, TN.
What is a medical physicist?
Medical physicists are an integral part of the cancer patient care team. Our role in a nutshell is to ensure that the radiation machines are working safely and correctly and that each patient receives the dose the radiation oncologist prescribed in a safe and accurate manner.
Most medical physicists will attend a two year medical physics masters program at a university before undergoing a 2 year residency program in a radiation oncology department. Final board certification involves passing a board exam that is split up in 3 parts that are taken at least one year apart.
Dr. Isabella Pfeiffer was born and raised in Munich, Germany. She graduated from the Munich Vet School in 2004. Over the next six years she completed a rotating internship, her doctoral thesis (Dr. med. vet.) and a medical oncology residency at the Munich Vet School and Purdue University, IN. Since 2010 she is board-certified in Medical Oncology by the ECVIM-CA.
She also spent four months at the Radiation Oncology Service of UC Davis, CA. In 2011 she worked as a senior clinician for the Radiation and Medical Oncology Service at the Vet School in Munich, Germany. From January 2012 until May 2013 she was Head of the Oncology Department at a small animal clinic in Düsseldorf.
She completed a radiation oncology residency at UC Davis in August 2015, passed her board examination in September 2015 and worked as a clinical assistant professor for radiation oncology at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the University of Tennessee from 2015 till 2020.
She then switched careers and completed the Certificate in Medical Physics at the University of Tennessee Department of Nuclear Engineering and a 2-year residency program with the Thompson Cancer Survival Center at Covenant Health. She is currently working as a medical physicist for the Thompson Proton Center and as a veterinary radiation oncology consultant for the Harvest Veterinary Oncology Center in Hong Kong.
At this meeting, we’ll also determine TSK membership interest in a guided tour of the Thompson Proton Center’s massive behind the scenes proton acceleration infrastructure and what available dates and times may be best for such a TSK site visit. We’re glad Knoxville has been among the first cities worldwide with a Proton treatment facility. There still are fewer than 50 in the U.S.
Proton beam distribution from the cyclotron to the treatment rooms at Thompson Proton Center. 
2016 Wolf Naegeli
For more information on TSK and its meetings, please email TSK secretary, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call him at 865-679-9854.