Medical Cover Letter
Resume:
CURRICULUM VITAE
Seongheon Kim, M.S.
**** ******** **, *** ***, San Antonio, TX, 78229
Email: ************@*****.***
Cell Phone: 210-***-****
OBJECTIVE
Seeking a position as a clinical Medical Physicist in Radiation Oncology.
EDUCATION
2012 – 2014, CAMPEP-accredited Residency in Therapeutic Medical physics, University of Texas Health
Science Center at San Antonio, TX, USA
2009 - 2012, CAMPEP-accredited M.S. Medical Physics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San
Antonio, TX, USA. (3.684/4.000)
2006 - 2009, M.S. Physics, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, IL, USA. (3.91 / 4.00 )
1997 – 2005, B.S. Physics, MyongJi University, Yongin, South Korea (3.37/4.00)
CLINICAL EXPERIENCE
RT treatment planning,
• Proficient with 3D conformal, Control Point and IMRT planning using Pinnacle3 V8.0M, V9.0, V9.2, V9.6.
• Proficient with 3D conformal, Field-in-Field and IMRT planning using Eclipse V8.6.
• Proficient with Acceptance test of Treatment planning system (Pinnacle3 and Eclipse).
• Familiar with commissioning of Varian Novalis TX in Pinnacle V9.2, including Beam modeling.
• Familiar with IMRT planning using TomoTherapy TPS.
QA, QC, and treatment delivery
• Proficient with Morning Linac and CT QA for Varian Novalis TX, OBI CBCT, BrainLab ExacTrac,
CL21C/D, CL23CD, CL-600C, CL21C, CL23EX, and GE LightSpeed.
• Proficient with Monthly Linac (Mechanical, Dosimetry, EPID) and CT QAs for all above machines.
• Proficient with the Annual Linac QAs for all above machine
• Familiar with the Annual CT QA for GE LightSpeed.
• Participated in Monthly QA for TomoTherapy HI-Art unit several times.
• Proficient with IMRT patient QA using Films and ion chambers, MapCHECK, PTW, and IBA MatriXX.
• Proficient with IMRT patient QA using Cheese Phantom and Scandidos Delta-4.
• Proficient with IBA Blue phantom and PTW MP3-M phantom water tanks and softwares.
• Proficient with CT simulation (GE LightSpeed).
• Proficient with patient positioning, immobilization, and treatment simulation.
• Proficient with IGRT (EPID, OBI CBCT and BrainLab ExacTrac for Novalis TX).
Special procedures: SRS/SRT/SBRT
• Proficient with SRS/SRT planning using BrainLAB iPlan V4.1
• Proficient with SBRT planning using Pinnacle3 V9.2 and Eclipse V8.6.
• Proficient with Winston Lutz QA and patient positioning for SRS/SRT and SBRT.
Special procedures: TBI/TSE
• Proficient with TBI patient simulation (AP/PA or lateral in a Varian Linac CL-600C).
• Proficient with TBI block-making (Cerrobend and lead filter) and electron cutout.
• Proficient with TBI dose verification/calculations.
• Proficient with TLD and OSLD dose measurements and readings.
• Participated in TSE treatment.
Brachytherapy
• Proficient with HDR planning using Nucletron Oncentra for Tandem & Ovoid, Vaginal Cylinder, and Lung
Catheters.
• Proficient with HDR decay activity calculation, morning QA, patient QA, and second MU check.
• Proficient with HDR source exchange, calibration, and treatment delivery.
• Proficient with LDR pre-planning, live-planning, and post-planning using Prowess.
• Proficient with LDR prostate seed implants (Theragenics I-125).
• Proficient with COMB eye plaques planning using Pinnacle3 V9.2 (Best I-125) and second MU check.
• Proficient with seeds implants in a gold plaque template.
Clinical support
• Proficient with patient Medical Physics Consultation, Pre-TX check, 2nd check, weekly chart checks, and
closeout.
• Proficient with MU/dose hand calculation second check and RadCalc, MUCheck software.
• Proficient with IMPAC/Mosaiq, RIT113 V6.0, Pipspro V4.5, Velocity AI, Image J, MLC shaper V7.0.
• Studied and Experienced reports : TG21, 25, 28, 29, 30, 34, 36, 39, 40, 42, 43, 50, 51, 53, 55, 66, 69, 75, 101,
104, 106, 114, 120, 129, 142, 147, 148, 160, 179, and NCRP151
Other Clinical Service
• Presented TG reports weekly in the resident journal club.
• Assisted for QAs’ Policy and Procedures.
• Worked as a full-time dosimetrist for 8 months.
• Practiced for Radiation Safety, Protection and Shielding design.
• Experienced in RPC TLD linac calibration.
• Experienced in RTOG study application.
• Familiar with MLC motor change, laser alignment correction, crosshair correction, light field
correction to radiation field, ODI correction, jaw, collimator, and gantry calibration for all above
machines.
CERTIFICATION
• Board Certification: Eligible for American Board of Radiology (ABR)- Radiological physics(Therapeutic),
Part 1 completed in 2011, Part 2 is schedule on Aug. 11 2014.
• Texas License: Temporary License of Therapeutic Radiological Physicist 2012-2014.
SKILL
• Matlab, C/C++, R, FSL, Mango, Excel, MS Power Point, and MS word.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
• Fall 2006 to Spring 2008 – Instructor in General Physics Labs and Tutor for General Physics.
• July 2012 to June 2014 – Teaching and advice to dosimetrist, dosimetrist student, graduate student, and
physics residents.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATION
• Junior member, American Association of Physicists in Medicine
PUBLISHED POSTER ABSTRACTS:
1. O Calvo, S Kim, Y Lei, AGutierrez, S Stathakis and N Papanikolaou, “Can 2D and 3D detector
arrays identify multileaf collimator (MLC) positional errors during Smart-Arc pre-treatment
verification plan delivery?” Med. Phys. 38(6), 3818 (2011)
2. S Kim, S Stathakis, C Esquivel, N Papanikolaou, “Comparative Evaluation of EBT2 Film,
Matrixx and PTW729 for Patient Specific, Small-Field, High Dose IMRT Plans” Med. Phys.
39(6), 3785 (2012)
3. S Kim, Y Qiu, P Mavroidis, N Papanikolaou, S Stathakis, “To Evaluate Significance of Gamma
Index Between the Measurement of 2D Detector Arrays and the Calculated Patient 3D Dose
distribution” Med. Phys. 40(6), 253 (2013)
4. O Casares, S Kim, J Armas, N Papanikolaou, A Gutierrez, “Impact of Detector Element-Specific
Angular Correction Factors for the MatriXX Ion Chamber Array for Patient-Specific Dose
Validation” Med. Phys. 40(6), 250 (2013)
5. Y Qiu, S Kim, P Mavroidis, N Papanikolaou, S Stathakis, “Dosimetric Comparison of Patient
Specific IMRT QA Using Varian DynaLog Files and TPS Calculations in a Phantom Geometry”
Med. Phys. 40(6), 250 (2013)
SCHOLARSHIP
• Certificate of Excellence for exemplary academic achievement at SIUE. Apr. 2009
• Certificate of Excellence for exemplary academic achievement at SIUE. Apr. 2008
• Baekma Scholarship at MyongJi University. Jan. 2003
• Exemplary Scholarship at MyongJi Uinversity. Feb. 2002
REFERENCES
Niko Papanikolaou, PhD
Professor, Radiation Oncology/ Chief Medical Physicist, Division of Medical Physics
Cancer Therapy & Research Center at University of Texas Health Science Center at SA, TX
************@*******.***
Sotiri Stathakis, PhD
Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology/ Medical Physicist, Division of Medical physics
Cancer Therapy & Research Center at University of Texas Health Science Center at SA, TX
*********@*******.***
Chul Soo Ha, MD
Professor, Radiation Oncology/ Chairman, Division of Radiation Oncology
Cancer Therapy & Research Center at University of Texas Health Science Center at SA, TX
***@*******.***
A past event sometimes sweeps across my memory. It is back to January first, 1991
when I was 13 years old. Early in the morning, a phone was madly ringing. The
unpleasant murmur roused me from a deep sleep. And I felt my door swung open. With
stifling a sob, my father told me “Son, your grandmother passed away due to her old age.
Be ready to meet her at a funeral hall.” His voice was shivered. I had not seen my father
be in such a profound grief. He seemed lost his way of his life. That was the first death
that I faced. At the funeral, I was confused and in a daze. Incessantly, tears were
streaming down my cheeks. Unfortunately, it was just beginning in my life. On February
the same year, my father’s elder brother also died of acute indigestion before soothing
our suffering from grandmother’s death. As from the age, it was vaguely in my mind that
death is not only far away but also inevitable and unscheduled in all living things.
However, it never rains but it pours. His death had deeply distressed his wife all time, and
following year, cancer was diagnosed in her stomach. This was quite different from my
grandmother and uncle’s death. Helplessly, I had to watch her in terrible pain for several
months. Without intake of food, she became extremely emaciated. Whenever the severe
pain attacked her, she was rolling and tumbling in her bed. Crunching her blanket, she
muffled her mouth. In the vein of her efforts, her shrieks pierced out of it. The closer is
her time, the shorter is the interval. Almost her last, she had been through several times a
day. That was the horrible and burned memory to me. After that experience, the scare of
cancer and the thought for the quality of life have been engraved in my part of mind.
In my high school year, I was intrigued to physics. For a person like me who does not
want to be shackled by limitations, physics shattered many fixed ideas I possessed. And it
provided me with a framework for free and flexible thinking. When I studied microscopic
physics during my undergraduate years, I gained knowledge to stochastic possibilities,
which was a new world overthrowing fixed ideas that human beings acquired based on
what they see, hear and feel. What we perceive is the superficial and stochastic end result
that came from the combination of the characteristics of individual substances such as
atoms and corpuscles. It was a refreshing shock to find that what we know to be universal
rules is not applicable to the microscopic world, and that occurrences could happen as
stochastic possibilities.
The dual nature of light and absolute speed was the most memorable piece of knowledge
I learned during my undergraduate study. As I approached the later days of my university
experience and learned theories requiring increasingly freer thinking, my desire to
confirm such theories through experiments became larger. Finally, it drove me to study
optics at physics department, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
At SIUE, I made presentations about applied optics to medicine such as medical N-D
fiber laser, medical diode laser and laser application to ophthalmology. While I was
preparing and researching the papers, I became fascinated with the concept of applying
photon energy to patient treatment.
In this period, my grandmother underwent a surgery for liver cancer and so did my
mother’s sister. It was caused from my maternal line inherited disease (hepatitis B virus),
which has been in latency and does not show the symptoms. However in old age, it can
be exacerbated to cancer. My mother also has had the liver disease. It reminded me of my
aunt’s death. A mixture of my academic interest and scare from potential development of
the family disease fuel my desire to pursue a career in medical physics.
On the master degree program of the radiological science department at UTHSCSA, I
have been excited in its systematic coursework. I could dig deep into theoretical medical
physics, such as radiation dosimetry, physics of radiotherapy, radiation and nuclear
physics, and the other CAMPEP-accredited core courses. With intensive coursework and
clinical environment exposure, I realized that the practical experiences should be weighed
as much as the academic research because medical physics is truly a practical field, and
the one of goals in medical physics is to perform the secured treatment to patients. My
decision to seek for research and clinical experience together becomes concrete. In the
end, I achieved CAMPEP-accredited master and CAMPEP-accredited residency at
UTHSCSA. Now I am ready and applying to a clinical medical physicist position while I
am preparing for ABR Medical Physics Part 2 Exam on August 11, 2014
In an era where modern medicine is performed by a team of experts, rather than by an
individual doctor, it is clear that medical physics is at the forefront of oncology and leads
the future in technology. I certainly believe that it will proffer much safer and pain-
reduced cure to patients beside to the quality of life. I am sure that board certified clinical
medical physicist is where my road ahead lies.
Dear Radiation Oncology,
My name is Seongheon Kim, currently a CAMPEP-accredited Resident at Cancer
Therapy & Research Center of University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
I am applying for the clinical medical physicist position in your clinic.
I am a highly motivated person working even at off-hour (weekend and holidays)
and after the hour during my master and resident programs. Therefore, I have 5 years
extensive clinical experience in conventional therapy, IMRT, IGRT, TBI, TSE, SBRT,
SRS, Brachytherapy (LDR and HDR), treatment planning (Pinnacle, Eclipse, Iplan,
Oncentra, and Prowess), acceptance test, commissioning, cross calibration, chart check,
2nd check, QAs (patient, daily, monthly, and annual), and plan verification/ recording/
review in Mosaiq. It has been performed with Varian Novalis TX, CL2100C, CL2300,
CL2300EX, GE LightSpeed, and Nucletron afterloader based on AAPM Task Groups.
Furthermore, I actively studied patient QA problems and collaborated in developing
several policy & procedures about H&N and CNS cases, patient specific QA and SRT
film QA. For the certification, I passed ABR Part1 in 2011 and scheduled to take Part2 on
Aug. 11th 2014. With my experience and knowledge of Medical Physics, I assure you
that I can be fully certified in 2015.
I have the highest professional and ethical standards. I am persistent, have a
strong work ethic, take initiative, and have independent thinking and confidence in
making clinical decisions. I am ready-to-work for you.
I appreciate your time to read my CV, SOP and Cover Letter.
Thank you and have a nice day!
Seongheon, Kim
Contact this candidate