The role of research activity in the advance of the profession of Medical Physics is beyond dispute. The founding fathers and mothers of the profession came to their clinical service from a research‐based background. In today’s collection of clinical medical physicists, we have practitioners with a wide spectrum of interest in and time committed to research. Likewise, within formal training programs we will find that the emphasis on acquiring research skills and performing research projects will vary significantly from program to program. Does this inform the practice patterns of clinical medical physicists, or is it a reflection of them? Should training programs recognize a need for research skills in the cadre of medical physicists that they produce? Does such a need exist? Should it exist? In the exchange below, two leaders in the field will inform our opinions about these questions.

Arguing for the proposition is Jeffrey F. Williamson, Ph.D. Dr. Williamson received his Ph.D. in Biophysical Sciences/Medical Physics at the University of Minnesota in 1982 after 2 years of graduate studies in history and philosophy of science. During his 44 yr career, he has served as a dosimetrist, clinical physicist, research scientist, teacher, and administrator, all in university‐based radiation oncology. He is currently Professor of Radiation Oncology at Washington University and Editor‐in‐Chief of Medical Physics. He has published 270 peer‐reviewed papers, proceedings, and book chapters and has served as Principal Investigator of 11 funded NIH R01 grants and 1 Program Project Grant (P01). His research interests include computational and experimental brachytherapy dosimetry, model‐based dose calculation, image‐guided and adaptive radiation therapy, CT image reconstruction and quantitative multispectral imaging, and deformable image registration and dose reconstruction. As Chair of Medical Physics at Virginia Commonwealth University, he founded its CAMPEP‐accredited radiation‐oncology physics residency and Medical Physics M.S. and Ph.D. programs.

研究活动在医学物理学专业发展中的作用是无可争议的。该行业的创始父亲和母亲来自具有研究背景的临床服务。在当今的临床医学物理学家汇集中，我们拥有对研究有着浓厚兴趣和时间的执业医师。同样，在正式的培训计划中，我们会发现，对获得研究技能和执行研究项目的重视程度因计划而异。这是否告知临床医学物理学家的执业方式，还是这反映了他们？培训计划是否应该认识到他们产生的医学物理学家干部对研究技能的需求？是否存在这种需求？应该存在吗？在下面的交流中，

主张这一主张的是杰弗里·威廉姆森（Jeffrey F. Williamson）博士。威廉姆森博士获得博士学位。在对历史和科学哲学进行了2年的研究生研究之后，于1982年获得明尼苏达大学生物物理科学/医学物理学博士学位。在他的44年职业生涯中，他曾在大学放射肿瘤学领域担任过剂量测定师，临床物理学家，研究科学家，老师和行政人员。他目前是华盛顿大学放射肿瘤学教授和医学物理学总编辑。他发表了270篇经同行评审的论文，论文集和书籍章节，并担任11个NIH R01资助和1个计划项目资助（P01）的首席研究员。他的研究兴趣包括计算和实验近距离放射剂量学，基于模型的剂量计算，图像引导和自适应放射治疗，CT图像重建和定量多光谱成像以及可变形图像配准和剂量重建。作为弗吉尼亚联邦大学医学物理学系主任，他建立了经CAMPEP认证的放射肿瘤学物理驻地，并建立了医学物理学理学硕士和博士学位。程式。