Syllabus

Radiation Biophysics
Physics 561
Department of Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences
spring 2003

Instructor: Andrew Howard

Campus Office:
  Life Sciences room 174, main campus, Illinois Institute of Technology
  3101 South Dearborn Street, Chicago Illinois 60616
  phone 312-567-5881, fax 312-567-3576, pager 630-905-0534
  email address: howard@iit.edu
 I am on campus ordinarily on Mondays and Wednesdays.
  Office Hours: 2-3:30pm Mondays, 10-5pm Wednesdays; others by appointment. Internet students are welcome to telephone me at any time at this phone number or at the APS phone number (below).

APS Office:
  Sector 17, Building 435A, Advanced Photon Source
  Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue
  Argonne, Illinois 60439, phone 630-252-0534, fax 630-252-0521

Course Plan:

The general purpose of the course is to introduce the students to the physical and biological realities of the interaction between radiation and tissue. We begin with an overview of radiation physics and chemistry (covered in other Health Physics courses) and concentrate for the remainder of the semester on biological interactions. We will stick fairly close to the textbook.

The catalog's description of the course material is as follows:
Energy loss by ionizing radiation. Target theory. Direct and indirect action. Radiation effects in biomolecules. Radiation inactivation of enzymes, nucleic acids and viruses. Biological effects of ultraviolet radiation. Photosensitization. Radiation protection and sensitization. Radiation effects in vivo, radiation therapy, phototherapy.

I will endeavor to cover all of these topics in varying degrees of detail, but the coverage of viruses, ultraviolet radiation, and phototherapy will be very limited.

Class Hours and Location:

every Wednesday from 22 January 2003 through 7 May 2003 inclusive, except 19 March
6:25pm through 9:05 pm
room 236, Stuart Building, Illinois Institute of Technology
final exam on Wednesday 14 May 2003 from 7:30pm to 9:30 pm

Course Text:

Edward L. Alpen, Radiation Biophysics, 2nd. Ed. San Diego: Academic Press, 1998. 520 pp., cloth. ISBN 0-12-053085-6. $69.95. Available from the IIT bookstores or from the major on-line book dealers. We will augment the course text from time to time (particularly in the discussion on radiation chemistry and in the final lecture) with outside materials.

Special Note:

I urgently need each of you to let me know the e-mail address you really use as soon as possible. All of you have been assigned e-mail addresses by IIT, but if those aren't the ones you're using, I need to know what you really are using so I can reach you. This course depends heavily on my ability to communicate with you by e-mail and your ability to reach me the same way. I promise that those of youo taking the course through the Distance-Learning program will want and need to communicate with me electronically--because that's how I'm going to get to know you.

Grading System

Policies: