Upper School Physics teacher Dr. Victor Montemayor recently achieved another significant milestone in his academic career with the publication of his book, "Foundations of Medical Physics.” The book is Montemayor’s second, with the first being “Studies in Theoretical Physics: Mathematical Methods (Vol. 1)” published in 2022.

"Foundations of Medical Physics," coauthored by Dr. George Starkschall, was written assuming as little background in Medical Physics on the part of the instructor as possible, allowing Physics faculty with no background in the subject to teach an introductory course in Medical Physics. It is also the final form of a series of notes put together by Montemayor when he was a Professor of Physics at Middle Tennessee State University.

“I began the development of an upper-division college course to introduce Physics and other interested science majors to the field of Medical Physics,” Montemayor said. “I quickly learned that there was no introductory Medical Physics text geared toward undergraduate Physics majors, so I started putting together notes of my own. I view Medical Physics as a fascinating and important application of Modern Physics, so I wanted to make sure the students understood the topics in Modern Physics that are of fundamental importance in Medical Physics.”

The book is structured into three parts, starting with the history of cancer and cancer treatment, providing a foundational understanding of Radiobiology and the fundamental principles that drive Radiation Therapy. Part II transitions into Modern Physics, laying down the essential concepts that underpin the approaches used in Radiation Therapy. In Part III, the book brings together the theoretical knowledge from the earlier sections and demonstrates its applications in Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy. Montemayor authored Parts I and II of the book, along with the discussion of Medical Imaging at the beginning of Part III.

“Not being a biologist, I had to do much research into Radiobiology, reading numerous books and research publications on the topic,” Montemayor said. “[Upper School Science Teacher] Becky Pizzino was a huge help to me in the cell biology portion of my writing. I knew most of the Atomic, Nuclear, and Particle-Interaction Physics, so the research there was mostly looking up specific equations and comparing my discussions of various topics with those of other authors. I also completed a lot of research involving reading numerous books and research articles on medical imaging.”

Montemayor then faced an even more tedious task. The entire book was typeset using the mathematical desktop publishing language LaTeX, something that Montemayor introduces to his senior AP Physics C students at GA. Neither Starkschall nor any of the contributing authors knew LaTeX, so Montemayor had to typeset all their work in addition to his own. With the book being more than 600 pages long and including a good bit of mathematics, it was quite an undertaking. 

Regardless of whether it the book will be used for a course taught by a faculty member with no Medical Physics background or by a Medical Physicist, or is being used by a student doing independent study, Montemayor hopes that “Foundations of Medical Physics” is found to be informative and readable.

For those interested in exploring the intricacies of Medical Physics, "Foundations of Medical Physics" is now available on Amazon for educators and professionals seeking to enhance their knowledge and teaching methodologies.