The research project may be based on-campus and be supervised by one of the faculty members listed below. Alternatively, an off-campus project may be organized with a professional health physicist at any of a number of approved locations throughout Canada. The objective of the Medical Physics programme is to graduate medical physicists for the Canadian Health Care System who will not only demonstrate ability in research but will, after a suitable period of clinical training, be capable of successfully completing the written examination for Membership of the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine. M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in medical physics are awarded following completion of the required course work and a research thesis. Research projects will be supervised by a member of the faculty.
Facilities are also available for tissue culture experiments.
On the University Campus the nuclear and radiographic imaging devices within McMaster University Medical Centre include CT scanners, digital radiography, positron emission tomography, gamma cameras and magnetic resonance imaging. Other nuclear medicine equipment includes a whole body counter, a cyclotron dedicated to the production of positron emitting isotopes, and a fully equipped radiochemical laboratory. Also on the University campus are radiobiology laboratories for the study of radiation-induced DNA damage and its repair in human cells, and photodynamic therapy. Research programmes also utilize the McMaster nuclear reactor and the facilities of the accelerator laboratory. There are many areas of research activity available for graduate students in both medical physics and health and radiation physics.