Russell J. Hamilton, PhD, DABMP

Russell J. Hamilton, PhD, DABMP

Physics Section Head, Medical Physics Residency Program Director

 

 

Professor Emeritus

Contact Information

Phone Number: 
520-694-4489

Background

Dr. Hamilton earned his undergraduate degree in physics at the University of Illinois. He then earned his graduate and doctorate degrees in physics at Stanford University. He completed a fellowship in radiation and cellular oncology at the University of Chicago in 1994, where he served as assistant professor of radiation and cellular oncology, becoming director of physics in 2002.

Dr. Hamilton was appointed associate professor and head of the Department of Radiation Oncology physics section at the University of Arizona in October of 2002. Dr. Hamilton's objective is excellence in clinical service, education and research. His clinical focus is in improving patient care by incorporating technological innovations into routine radiation therapy clinical practice. Dr. Hamilton considers the education of future generations to be of paramount importance. He provides classroom instruction at undergraduate, graduate and medical resident levels, and practical clinical training for physicists and medical dosimetrists. Undergraduates, graduates and postdoctoral students have participated in his research projects.

Dr. Hamilton's general research is in the application of mathematical methods to problems in radiation therapy. He is currently investigating phenomenological modeling of radiotherapy toxicity, iterative reconstruction algorithms for optimizing intensity modulated radiation therapy treatment (IMRT), using functional imaging (PET or SPECT) data in radiotherapy planning, incorporating biologically based objectives in IMRT optimization and exploring methods to monitor and control patient motion during radiotherapy delivery.

Honors: 
  • Gulf Oil Honors Scholarship (1982-84)
  • University of Illinois Bronze Tablet: graduated summa cum laude
  • Ernest M. Lyman Award: Outstanding Undergraduate in Physics
  • Solar Physics Division Studentship Award
  • National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award
  • Kurt Rossman Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Chicago

Clinical

Board Certifications: 

American Board of Medical Physics Certification American Board of Radiology Equivalence

Clinical Practice Sites: 
Radiation Oncology

Education

Doctorate: 
Stanford University
Fellowship: 
University of Chicago
Master's Degree: 
Stanford University
Undergraduate School: 
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research

Selected Publications: 

 Goldbaum D, Hurley JD, Hamilton RJ A simple knowledge-based tool for stereotactic radiosurgery pre-planning, J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2019 Dec;20(12):97-108. doi: 10.1002/acm2.12770. Epub 2019 Nov 19. PMID: 31743563 

Lee, YC, Kim Y, Huynh JW-H, Hamilton RJ (2017). Failure modes and effects analysis for ocular brachytherapy. Brachytherapy. 10.1016/j.brachy.2017.07.005.

Automated survey of 8000 plan checks at eight facilities. Halabi T, Lu HM, Bernard DA, Chu JC, Kirk MC, Hamilton RJ, Lei Y, Driewer J. Med Phys. 2016 Sep;43(9):4966. doi: 10.1118/1.4959999 

Gordon JD, Krafft SP, Jang S, Smith-Raymond L, Stevie MY, and Hamilton RJ, Confidence limit variation for a single IMRT system following the TG119 protocol, Med Phys 38, 1641 (2011).  

Stea B, Hazard LJ, Gonzalez VJ, Hamilton R. The role of radiation therapy in the control of locoregional and metastatic cancer, J Surg Oncol. 2011 May 1;103(6):627-38.  

Xu Q, He Z, Fan J, Hamilton RJ, Chen Y, Ma CM, Xing L, Registration of on-board X-ray images with 4DCT: A proposed method of phase and setup verification for gated radiotherapy, Physica Medica. 2010;26(3):117-25. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmp.2009.09.001. Epub 2009 Oct 2. 

Qianyi Xu, Russell J. Hamilton, Robert A. Schowengerdt, Brian Alexander, and Steve B. Jiang Lung tumor tracking in fluoroscopic video based on optical flow, Med. Phys. 35 5351, 2008. 

Xu Q., Hamilton R.J. A novel respiratory detection method based on automated analysis of ultrasound diaphragm video, Med. Phys. 33, 916-21, 2006. 

Armbruster B., Hamilton R.J., Kuehl A.K. Spectrum reconstruction from dose measurements as a linear inverse problem, Phys. Med. Biol., 49, 5087-99, 2004. 

Jani A. B., Blend M. J., Hamilton R., Brendler C., Pelizzari C., Krauz L., Sapra B., Vijayakumar S., Awan A., Weichselbaum R. R., Radioimmunoscintigraphy for Postprostatectomy Radiotherapy: Analysis of Toxicity and Biochemical Control, J Nucl Med 45, 1315-22, 2004.