Physics for the Life Sciences

Martin Zinke-Allmang studied Physics and Chemistry at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. After completing his Ph.D. thesis at the Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics, he moved to New Jersey for a Post-doctoral fellowship at AT&T Bell Laboratories and later settled at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, where he currently teaches first year Physics. He has published more than 80 scientific articles, including two major review articles in Surface Science Reports and Thin Solid Films. He has supervised more than 25 M.Sc., Ph.D. students and post-doctoral fellows, most recently in the Graduate program in Medical Biophysics. Ken Sills studied Astronomy at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, Saint Mary's University in Canada, and Ohio State University in the United Stated of America, and for a change of scenery is studying Computer Engineering at McMaster University in Canada. He has also worked as a software engineer in England, an industrial physicist in the United Stated of America, and currently has a consulting company that designs scientific instruments that are used around the world. He has publications in the fields of astronomy, scientific instrumentation and physics education. When he is not doing science or engineering, he is either touring with his rock band, or trying to eat the raspberries that grow in his backyard before his wife and kids get to them. Reza Nejat was born in Iran, studied Physics at Tehran University (B.Sc., 1974). He then moved to the U.S to pursue graduate studies in the field of nuclear engineering, where he received his M.Sc. (1976) and his PhD (1980) from the University of Missouri-Rolla. Upon returning to Iran, he joined the department of Physics at Guilan University where he was a tenured faculty for 15 years. In 1996, he moved to Canada and continued his teaching career in the department of Physics and Astronomy at McMaster University in Ontario, where he has been teaching first year-Physics, Introduction to Modern physics, classical mechanics and nuclear physics. His current research interest is in developing the interactive method of learning and teaching Physics (algebra-based) to life sciences students. Eduardo Galiano-Riveros Born and raised in Asuncion, Paraguay, South America, where he attended elementary, middle, and high school. He went on to pursue university studies in the U.S., where he obtained a B.S. (1983) and M.S. (1985) degrees in physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. At around that time, he decided to pursue a career in medical physics and obtained an M.S. degree (1987) in medical physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, under the supervison of the late Prof. Herbert Attix. He returned to Paraguay where he worked as a clinical medical physicist at the National Cancer Hospital (1988 - 1992), when he accepted a fellowship at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX to pursue Ph.D. studies, which he completed in 1995. He returned to Paraguay to resume his clincal career at the National Cancer Hospital, and with a group of radiation oncologists set up a private radiotherapy clinic in Asuncion. He spent an academic year (1998 - 1999) at the University of Osaka, Japan, as a visiting scientist. In 2003, he accepted an offer to join the faculty at the Physics Department at Laurentian University, in Sudbury, Ontario, where he is presently a tenured professor. While at Laurentian University, he has publsihed some 25 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and has supervised the M.Sc. theses of five students. His present research interests focus on nuclear imaging, as well as radiotherapy physics. Outside of work, he enjoys flying both real and model airplanes, as well as mitigating the effects of aging by lifting weights and running.