Name: Kota Abe
Graduation year: 2017 (Master’s degree)
Current affiliation: Chiba University
―Message to junior students that can be conveyed now that I have finished the master’s course―
I graduated from the Department of Radiation Technology Science at Tohoku university and enrolled in this laboratory’s master’s course. When I was a master’s student, there was no core time, so I could live at my own pace. I think that in terms of the laboratory, it was good as long as the research results were good. Looking back now, I think that the stance of focusing on results rather than the process is the same as working as a working adult. It is because I had two years in such an environment that I can live my current social life without feeling much gap from my graduate school days. In the laboratory, I received strict guidance, but it was just right for me who had spent my time until university loosely. Thanks to that, I think that I was able to present topics at various domestic and international academic conferences during my master’s course. If you are going to be a master’s student from now on, it might be a good idea to consult with your instructor frequently when you get stuck in research. Research is difficult for one student to proceed alone. The instructors here have rich experience and knowledge, and should give you appropriate advice on how to proceed with research and how to solve problems. If you are a master’s student, you should be in the laboratory basically, so I think it is an environment where you can easily consult. It is important to think, but do not worry too much and consult with your instructor! In many laboratories, it is difficult for master’s graduates to become medical physicists even if they aim for it, but I think that many of the graduates are employed as medical physicists in this laboratory. Good luck!
―Current job―
After graduating from the master’s program, I worked as a medical physicist at Komagome Hospital, which is a cancer center in Tokyo, and then transferred to Chiba University where I am currently affiliated. Both working as a medical physicist at a cancer center and as a university instructor were rewarding in their own way. The main duties when working at a cancer center were creating treatment plans for how to irradiate cancer and quality control of radiation therapy equipment. I felt rewarded that we could perform treatment on patients using treatment plans created by myself and radiation therapy equipment whose quality we managed ourselves. I remember going to see how patients were treated with treatment plans created by myself at first. Currently, I belong to a donation lecture on MR-Linac related to Chiba University where MRI-integrated radiation therapy equipment (MR-Linac) is installed. We mainly engage in clinical and research work related to MR-Linac. At university, we can conduct research with people from various backgrounds such as medical practitioners and engineering majors. My current motivation is the time when we can think about research contents related to MR-Linac and what benefits patients will have if they are realized in such a stimulating environment. Sometimes things don’t go as planned, but now I’m enjoying it including those failures. Medical science is constantly evolving, so I would like to continue my efforts to acquire the latest knowledge and provide safe and effective medical care as a medical physicist.