Emory Radiation Oncology welcomes new physicians and medical physicists

The Emory Department of Radiation Oncology welcomes our newest faculty members whose research, teaching and clinical service will make a significant contribution to the department’s mission and to advancing the field of radiation oncology. This summer and fall, five physicians, five medical physicists and a health services researcher are joining the department faculty.

“We could not be more excited to welcome such a diverse group of extraordinarily talented individuals to our team,” says Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, Lawrence Davis professor and chair of radiation oncology at Emory University School of Medicine. “They will undoubtedly help Emory continue its legacy of eminence in leading the field of radiation oncology, ensuring that our discoveries, care and teaching equitably enhance the lives of everyone in the society we are privileged to serve.”

Naba Ali, MD
Assistant Professor

Ali was a chief resident in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Emory where she was engaged in the education of students, peers and patients. She completed her preliminary medicine intern year at Emory as well. Dr. Ali earned her MD from the University of Rochester. She received an ACRO Global Radiation Oncology Workforce scholarship and Winship Invest$ grant. She is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. She is involved in research on education, global health and clinical care, including recurrent glioblastoma treatment. She will practice at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory Midtown and Grady Memoria Hospital.

Rohini Bhatia, MD
Assistant Professor

Bhatia was a chief resident at Johns Hopkins University. She completed her medical internship at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and received her MD from the University of Rochester. A Gold Humanism Honor Society member and Fulbright awardee, she has been active in global health research, including key work on hypofractionation for breast cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa funded by the ASTRO-BCRF Resident Seed Grant, along with clinical research contributions in gynecologic and pediatric cancers as well as stereotactic radiation for brain metastases. She will practice at Winship Cancer Institute’s Clifton campus.

Amit Jethanandani, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor

Jethanandani completed his residency at the University of Miami. He completed both his preliminary year and MD at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. He also earned his Master of Public Health from the University of Texas Health Science Center. Dr. Jethanandani was a recipient of both an Alpha Omega Alpha grant and an RSNA grant. His research focuses primarily on head and neck cancer, including important work on machine learning and adaptive radiotherapy administration. He will practice at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory Midtown.

Kamran Salari, MD
Assistant Professor

Salari completed his residency at Beaumont Health in Royal Oak, Michigan, after serving as a Chief Resident during his final year. He also did his transitional year at Beaumont Health and earned his MD from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. An awardee of the American Brachytherapy Society, Dr. Salari has been involved with brachytherapy research, including as monotherapy and boost for prostate cancer. He has also researched important topics related to breast cancer and head and neck cancers. He will practice at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory Midtown.

Patricia Santos, MD, MS
Assistant Professor

Santos was a chief resident at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and is pursuing her Master of Public Health at Harvard TH Chan. She earned her MD from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Science from Mount Sinai. She is a Gold Humanism Honor Society member and recipient of both an ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award and an intermediate grant from the Commonwealth Fund. Her research focuses on understanding structural barriers to care in underserved populations. Using data disaggregation, implementation science and policy, her pioneering work seeks to identify strategies to meaningfully address inequities experienced by patients and peers. She will start on October 14 and practice at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Xin Hu, PhD, MSPH 
Assistant Professor 

Hu joins the faculty of the new Division of Health Services Research, Outcomes, and Policy after serving on the faculty in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine. She earned her PhD and her Master of Science in Public Health from Emory University. She also previously worked as a research associate at the Yale Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy and Effectiveness Research Center and was a biostatistician at the Yale Center for Analytical Sciences. Her research focuses on cancer outcomes, health care quality and health disparities. 

Chih-Wei Chang, PhD, MS
Assistant Professor

Chang was a medical physics resident in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Emory and completed his CAMPEP-required courses at Georgia Institute of Technology. He earned his PhD in nuclear engineering at North Carolina State University and his Master of Science in nuclear engineering and science from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. He took first place at our 2022 Resident Research Day and recently earned the SPIE Medical Imaging Best Poster Award. His research interests include multidisciplinary approaches integrating state-of-the-art techniques, especially artificial intelligence, to solve real-world challenges, including GAI, physics-informed machine learning, digital twin for adaptive radiotherapy and LLM-based clinical safety decision-making.

Shupeng Chen, PhD, MS
Assistant Professor  

Chen was a medical physics resident at Corewell Health’s Beaumont Hospital in Michigan. He earned his PhD in medical physics from Wayne State University and his Master of Science in medical physics from Wuhan University in China. He is an associate editor for the International Journal of Medical Physics Research and Practice. He received the Basic and Translational Science Abstract Award in the Radiation and Cancer Physics Category at the 2021 ASTRO Annual Meeting. His research interest is in biology-guided adaptive radiotherapy, particularly with the integration of emerging techniques including novel biomarkers, particle therapy and artificial intelligence. 

Jie Ding, PhD
Assistant Professor

Ding was a medical physics resident at the University of Maryland Medical Center and completed her medical physics certificate at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She earned her PhD in biomedical engineering at Stony Brook University. She has twice earned the Magna Cum Laude Award from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Her research interests include medical imaging, treatment planning and the integration of machine learning techniques into clinical applications for both diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy, particularly for breast cancer.

Yulia Lyatskaya, PhD, DABR
Associate Professor

Lyatskaya was associate director of the Harvard Medical Physics residency and certificate program. She was also chief of dosimetry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She earned her PhD in physics and mathematics at the Institute of Macromolecular Compounds, Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Russia. She holds a Master of Science in physics from Leningrad State University. Prior to her time at Harvard, she was a research associate at Carnegie Mellon University. She is a recognized educator and was awarded Mentor of the Year in 2012 by the Harvard Medical Physics Residency Program and Faculty Award for Education from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2024. Her research focuses on implementing new technologies into the clinic to improve efficiency, quality and safety.

William Swanson, PhD, MS
Assistant Professor

Swanson completed his medical physics residency at Weill Cornell Medicine. He earned his PhD and MS in medical physics from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He serves on the American Association of Medical Physics (AAPM) Global Needs Assessment and Global Medical Physics Education and Training committees. His research focuses on improving the accessibility of cancer management resources in low- and middle-income countries through the implementation of hypofractionated radiotherapy in sub-Saharan Africa. His efforts on developing globally accessible continuing education programs were recognized by the AAPM with the Award for Innovation in Medical Physics Education in 2018 and 2024.

The Division of Medical Physics also welcomes two new outstanding clinical medical physicists.

Priyanka Kapoor, MS, DABR
Clinical Medical Physicist

Kapoor previously served as instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has an interest in the standardization of clinical processes and workflows and automation of the treatment planning process. She has educated residents for many years and serves as an ABR examiner. In addition, she has extensive experience with HDR and LDR brachytherapy and she will serve as clinical lead of brachytherapy at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory Midtown.

Rachel Trevillian, MS
Clinical Medical Physicist

Trevillian completed her medical physics residency at Cooper University Health Care. She earned her MS from the University of Pennsylvania. She is passionate about professional service and in addition to serving on several national committees as a member, she currently serves as chair of the AAPM in Medicine Students and Trainees Subcommittee.