Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center’s Dr. Kenneth Hogstrom Named Chair in Medical Physics at LSU
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BATON ROUGE – Dr. Kenneth R. Hogstrom has been appointed as the Dr. Charles M. Smith Chair of Medical Physics at LSU – a $1 million endowed chair to support cancer research. This is the first endowed chair in medical physics at LSU and one of just a few in the nation.
Hogstrom is director of LSU’s medical physics program, a tenured professor in the university’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and chief of physics at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, or MBPCC. The creation of the endowed chair is one of several initiatives that are part of the academic and research partnership between MBPCC and LSU.
“Endowed chairs are a tremendous asset to a major research university such as LSU,” said Kevin Carman, dean of LSU’s College of Basic Sciences. “They greatly enhance our ability to recruit and retain world-class scholars such as Dr. Hogstrom. An endowed chair provides a source of discretionary funds for the recipient, but, perhaps even more important, the title of ‘chair’ is broadly recognized within academia as a recognition to his position at LSU and MBPCC.”
Under Hogstrom’s leadership, the program has already gained remarkable academic ground by achieving full accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs Inc., becoming one of only 11 accredited programs in the United States. Holding an endowed chair also comes with high expectations, and Hogstrom is committed to fulfilling them.
“I am committed to leading the Mary Bird Perkins-LSU program, and I fully expect it to become one of the finest medical physics programs in the world,” Hogstrom said. “Development of Ph.D. and residency programs is our immediate goal toward fulfilling that broader objective.”
A physician graduate of LSU, the chair’s benefactor – Dr. Charles M. Smith – made a generous contribution to the LSU Foundation to establish the chair. “Making this gift is important to me both as a physician and a graduate of LSU,” he said. “I know what a difference this will make.” Contributors to a capital fund drive conducted by MBPCC made it possible for the center to match Smith’s donation.
Together, these donations qualified for $400,000 in matching dollars from the Louisiana Board of Regents Support Fund to provide for the $1 million endowment. “This was the last piece of the Capital Campaign that needed to come to fruition and we are delighted it has,” said MBPCC Capital Campaign Co-Chair Louis Curet. “The establishment of this chair continues to illustrate the community’s and MBPCC’s commitment to research and academic excellence in cancer care.”
President and CEO of MBPCC, Todd Stevens, believes the creation of the endowed chair is an excellent example of the community working together. “The MBPCC-LSU medical physics partnership is a best practice model of a public-private partnership successfully meeting a community need. And, in this case, that need is to fight cancer. We know that this chair will help to further drive contributions to the applied sciences field of medical physics and will make a difference in the quality of care for cancer patients.”
Hogstrom is the former director of the graduate medical physics program for the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He is a renowned expert in medical physics and radiation cancer treatment and is highly respected nationally and internationally for his professional activity. Hogstrom’s primary area of research is in electron therapy. An algorithm he developed resulted in software found in most commercial treatment planning systems used in electron radiotherapy to treat superficial cancers, particularly in the head and neck, as well as the chest wall following breast surgery.
Hogstrom earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Houston in 1970 and a master’s degree in experimental nuclear physics from the University of Houston in 1972. In 1976, he earned his doctorate in experimental nuclear physics from Rice University. In 1992, he was certified by the American Board of Radiology and in 2000-2001 he served in the elected positions of president and chairman of the board of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. He was the 2004 recipient of the prestigious Marvin M.D. Williams Professional Achievement Award from the American College of Medical Physics.
The MBPCC-LSU partnership is part of the Cancer Program of Our Lady of the Lake and Mary Bird Perkins, a program that has been approved by the American College of Surgeons since 1992 – the gold standard for community-based cancer care. Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center has locations in Baton Rouge, Hammond and Covington. For more information about MBPCC and its mission, please visit www.marybird.org.
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Contact Amy L. Benton
Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center
225-215-1210
amy@marybird.com
Ashley Berthelot
LSU Media Relations
225-578-3870
aberth4@lsu.edu
More news and information can be found on LSU’s home page at www.lsu.edu
Photo 1 Caption
Kenneth Hogstrom, PhD