Lasers, Laparoscopy and Stereoscopic Vision!

College of Arts and Sciences

How does a study of Optics advance medicine and healthcare?  Over fall break, seven Physics of Medicine (POM) students answered that question by presenting their research at the 2021 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physical Sciences (WoPhyS) held at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska.  Poster presentations were based on students’ research in their Optics in Medicine course, as part of their Biomedical Physics - Physics of Medicine major.  All the students are pursuing careers in medicine and physical therapy, and they researched the following optics topics relevant to their future careers:

  • The Use of Laparoscopy for Visualization in Medicine by Alexandra Wilder and Sidney Strubhart
  • Physics of Stereoscopic Vision and Vestibular Physical Therapy by Avery Ost, Johanna Schultz, and Emily Rieske
  • Laser Physics - Physics of Laser Eye Surgeries by Karen Nguyen and Shereen Al-Saoudi

What is the Primary Focus of WoPhys?

WoPhyS is a national conference that provides undergraduate women in the physical sciences opportunities to present their research and interact with their peers and faculty.  At the conference, RU students attended talks in physics, biochemistry, chemistry, and science communication from keynote speakers from several universities across the country and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  Emily Rieske (a pre-PT student) shared: “I had a fantastic time at the WoPhys conference! It was inspiring to see all of the women that are dedicated to the field of science. Throughout the presentations, I learned a great amount of Quantum physics, biochemical bonds, and the nature of the physical world.”  Karen Nguyen (accepted to Optometry School) shared: “I enjoyed listening to a speaker who is an End-to-End Information System Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a professor from Boston University who shared her research with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.”  Karen also shared the emphasis placed on the importance of science communication: “The term science communication was repeated often. We had a speaker who is pursuing a Ph.D. in Science Communication from Vanderbilt University give a presentation on how important science communication is so that non-scientists are not receiving incorrect information.”

 

Highlighting Physics of Medicine:

RU students enjoyed presenting the research they conducted in a student poster session at the conference.  It gave them a chance to discuss the uniqueness of the Physics of Medicine major in its design to integrate physics principles with medicine and healthcare.  Emily Rieske commented: “During my individual presentation, I was offered the opportunity to converse with a woman currently working for NASA. My group and I were able to discuss our presentation and the importance of its application. While our research was very different in comparison to others, it offered a different perspective and method of thinking. We had many well-educated faculty members ask questions about our presentation that allowed us to dive deeper into our research.”  Karen shared: “I am a Physics of Medicine major, and many people did not know what Physics of Medicine was, so I explained to them that we use physics principles and apply them to medicine and healthcare applications. During the poster session, we presented our poster about Laser Physics of Eye Surgery. Many people were excited to learn about Small Incision Lenticule Extraction (SMILE) surgery and why it is the procedure that takes the least amount of time to heal compared to LASIK and Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) due to the smaller incision, no flap, and removal of the lenticule.”

Johanna Schulz (a pre-Physical Therapy student) shared her career connection with Physical Therapy: “I was very fortunate to be able to attend the WoPhys conference in Nebraska this past weekend. I have a great interest in physical therapy and was excited to learn that we had the opportunity to share what we had independently studied as well as the addition of my previous honors project and professional interviews about vestibular physical therapy. After gathering our information we created a poster that included models we made to help explain the stereoscopic vision to other students in physics courses. This was very useful as I now feel I have a better ability to explain physics to future patients.

 

Networking and Growing . . . .

RU POM students enjoyed their conference networking experiences with other women in science.  Shereen Al-Saoudi, who has been accepted to Medical School, shared: “It was super interesting to have the opportunity to experience so many research areas. This was also a great opportunity to network. There were many labs open to students who were interested. I met a lot of great women from all over the country who wanted to make a difference in the world. And, Ally Wilder, a Pre-Medicine student, summed up her experience with this reflection: “Overall, the conference was so much fun and I was able to meet so many friendly, like-minded individuals who love science as much as I do!”