Odd PhD candidates?

[MDPhD]

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Hey folks I was just curious about this but do you all know of any MD/PhD's that have strange PhD's such as theoretical physics, Atomic Physics, Physical Chemistry, Cosmology, Astronomy or any other PhD that falls outside the boundaries of the life sciences (it good be argued that P chem and Atomic physics have relevance to the life science, true, but I am reffering more to biological, biochemical and biophysical sciences)? I know that Jeffrey Sutton, has a PhD in theoretical physics, I thought that was rather interesting so I deciding I would ask you guys and gals to see if you know of one.

Thanks,
John

 

[fyli260]

Hey folks I was just curious about this but do you all know of any MD/PhD's that have strange PhD's such as theoretical physics, Atomic Physics, Physical Chemistry, Cosmology, Astronomy or any other PhD that falls outside the boundaries of the life sciences (it good be argued that P chem and Atomic physics have relevance to the life science, true, but I am reffering more to biological, biochemical and biophysical sciences)? I know that Jeffrey Sutton, has a PhD in theoretical physics, I thought that was rather interesting so I deciding I would ask you guys and gals to see if you know of one.

Thanks,
John

I think Francis Collins has a PhD in Pchem.

 

[alhkim]

I think Francis Collins has a PhD in Pchem.

This is correct...he received it from Yale.

 

[JETER]

There's an Astronautical Engineering student at UIUC.

 

[Sparky Man]

I'm actually finishing a Ph.D. in physical chemistry/chemical physics at Cornell right now. I'm going to Wash U. in the fall. I can tell you it's not a common path! But I really think I will bring something new to medical research with my background. I don't think I will enjoy classes much, though. I haven't been in one for 5 years. My bio background is minimal. I'm really looking forward to medical research and 3rd year clinical experiences...

Sparky

 

[Science_Guy]

I'm actually finishing a Ph.D. in physical chemistry/chemical physics at Cornell right now. I'm going to Wash U. in the fall. I can tell you it's not a common path! But I really think I will bring something new to medical research with my background. I don't think I will enjoy classes much, though. I haven't been in one for 5 years. My bio background is minimal. I'm really looking forward to medical research and 3rd year clinical experiences...

Sparky

Sparky,

What is your research topic in the PChem field? The thing I like about PChem is kinetics and thermodynamics....that will have a considerable application to biological systems. An example is that you may be able to perform experiments on enzyme systems which may have application in many different disease states, although the detailed calculations admittedly give many the "glassy" eye look if they don't grok it.

Good luck with your dissertation.......

 

[Sparky Man]

Sparky,

What is your research topic in the PChem field? The thing I like about PChem is kinetics and thermodynamics....that will have a considerable application to biological systems. An example is that you may be able to perform experiments on enzyme systems which may have application in many different disease states, although the detailed calculations admittedly give many the "glassy" eye look if they don't grok it.

Good luck with your dissertation.......

Hey thanks Science_Guy! We use nanoscale microscopy (like atomic force microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, etc.) to image charge in organic materials. We measure really tiny forces. We are trying to understand how electrons flow into an organic material from a metal, and what it does in the bulk materials. Lots of physics, but we study pretty cool chemical systems. Another project in our lab is to pull off the ultimate MRI - to image a single spin. Imagine the protein structures you could obtain if you could map each proton in a single protein. There is a huge number of proteins that don't crystallize, which makes structure determination difficult. It's a long way off, but it's a really cool goal. We also fabrication all of our devices at the nanofabrication facility at Cornell, which is amazing. Everything's goin' nano! There's even a "nanobiotechnology" center here...

anyway, sorry for dorking out on you.

thanks again, sparky

 

[the_one_smiley]

I'm actually finishing a Ph.D. in physical chemistry/chemical physics at Cornell right now. I'm going to Wash U. in the fall. I can tell you it's not a common path! But I really think I will bring something new to medical research with my background. I don't think I will enjoy classes much, though. I haven't been in one for 5 years. My bio background is minimal. I'm really looking forward to medical research and 3rd year clinical experiences...

Sparky

I'm a physicist/computer scientist at heart as well, and I'll see you at WashU! We have at least one other physics major (a very cool guy from Canada I met during the interview) in our huge MSTP class. I can commiserate with you about medical school classes; I wish you could derive the names of all the arteries from first principles but it doesn't work that way =)

To answer the original poster's question, there definitely are people with interests in areas like theoretical physics who get MDPhDs. For examples, see <a href="http://cbl1.wustl.edu/staff/SandorCV.html">Sándor Kovács</a> at WashU or <a href="http://www.med.upenn.edu/bmbgrad/Faculty/Master_List/Schotland/schotland.html">John Schotland</a> at UPenn. Schotland's PhD is in biophysics, but his publications show that he's doing some hardcore theoretical optics. The impression I got during the interview trail was that some labs draw from so many traditional disciplines that the classification of one of its students as biophysics or bioengineering or whatever was pretty much just for administrative purposes. Maybe you can ask that your PhD be in Theoretical Neurobiophysicalchemistryology.

 

[Sparky Man]

I'm a physicist/computer scientist at heart as well, and I'll see you at WashU! We have at least one other physics major (a very cool guy from Canada I met during the interview) in our huge MSTP class. I can commiserate with you about medical school classes; I wish you could derive the names of all the arteries from first principles but it doesn't work that way =)

Oh, cool smiley! Can't wait to meet you! Are you entering this fall? Or already a seasoned medical scientist?

sparky

 

[the_one_smiley]

I'm entering in the fall, so no seasoning here. Actually, I'll be there in a few weeks to do a research rotation. See you in St. Louis!

 

[Sparky Man]

I'm entering in the fall, so no seasoning here. Actually, I'll be there in a few weeks to do a research rotation. See you in St. Louis!

super! good luck with your rotation.

we'll have to have some sort of sdn unmasking event!

See you there, sparky

 

[freddytn]

I'm doing my PhD in Physical Chemistry under the Medical Scholars Program at UIUC.

 

[Sparky Man]

I'm doing my PhD in Physical Chemistry under the Medical Scholars Program at UIUC.

hey, that's cool. what do you work on?

 

[freddytn]

I work in an Electrical Engineering Lab doing optical biomedical imaging and the development of complimentary contrast agents for targeting, diagnosis, and treatment in various diseases from cancer to atherosclerosis to diseased muscles, etc ..

 

[Science_Guy]

Hey thanks Science_Guy! We use nanoscale microscopy (like atomic force microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, etc.) to image charge in organic materials. We measure really tiny forces. We are trying to understand how electrons flow into an organic material from a metal, and what it does in the bulk materials. Lots of physics, but we study pretty cool chemical systems. Another project in our lab is to pull off the ultimate MRI - to image a single spin. Imagine the protein structures you could obtain if you could map each proton in a single protein. There is a huge number of proteins that don't crystallize, which makes structure determination difficult. It's a long way off, but it's a really cool goal. We also fabrication all of our devices at the nanofabrication facility at Cornell, which is amazing. Everything's goin' nano! There's even a "nanobiotechnology" center here...

anyway, sorry for dorking out on you.

thanks again, sparky

Hummmmm.....MRI of single protons, now that is some pretty happening stuff. I did a extensive work with mass spectrometry in my graduate work, and in a few cases our group tried to identify protein sequences after protease cleavage. THAT was a messy affair (those spectra were sometimes awful to interpret). Doing drug metabolism identification research from microsomal fractions or hepatocyte incubations was much easier by contrast.

Just curious...I haven't done much magnetic resonance work in years.....are you looking at whole proteins or digests? Also, are you able to differentiate between multiple forms of the protein (i.e. denatured versus natural state) in the same sample, since the field that a proton "feels" may be different in its natural secondary conformation (whether that be beta sheets or alpha helices)? Finally, how are you able to differentiate between variable glycosylation states with many proteins using the single spin MR methodology?

Sounds like some exciting work.....

 

[Sparky Man]

Hummmmm.....MRI of single protons, now that is some pretty happening stuff. I did a extensive work with mass spectrometry in my graduate work, and in a few cases our group tried to identify protein sequences after protease cleavage. THAT was a messy affair (those spectra were sometimes awful to interpret). Doing drug metabolism identification research from microsomal fractions or hepatocyte incubations was much easier by contrast.

Just curious...I haven't done much magnetic resonance work in years.....are you looking at whole proteins or digests? Also, are you able to differentiate between multiple forms of the protein (i.e. denatured versus natural state) in the same sample, since the field that a proton "feels" may be different in its natural secondary conformation (whether that be beta sheets or alpha helices)? Finally, how are you able to differentiate between variable glycosylation states with many proteins using the single spin MR methodology?

Sounds like some exciting work.....

Hey,
If you want to know more about it, check out John Sidles' website. He helped create the field and has some cool movies on his site. Right now, we are trying to increase sensitivity to the single spin level. It's an engineering feat, mostly. Our group has not studied a protein - that's the holy grail of the field. You can check out my group's website at: Marohn Group.

see you, sparky