10 June 1999 Lindsey Hillesheim ('99)

I've started my internship (in Medical physics) at the Mayo Clinic. I'm working in the MRI research group. Currently, I'm somewhat bored as I'm not doing too much physics, just writing a user interface program on Matlab (it runs some theoretical models). But I learned how to use the scanner yesterday, so I can take images (but not of people...yet ;) ). I will be starting an experiment probably next week which will measure T1 and T2 values (MR jargon) of a contrast agent in water and then in animal's blood. The T1 time measures how long the magnetization returns to being parallel to the longitudinal direction after its been hit with a pulse that knocks it antiparallel. The T2 time measures how long it takes the magnetization vector to dephase in the transverse plane. THey differ with concentration, so I'll be mixing up different solutions to image. It also seems that after starting that I won't be able to get too far from programming--it sounds like I will be helping write a fitting program in C. (I hate programming, but at least I'm getting a little more proficient at it!)

Lindsey

p.s. Lindsey stopped by VU on Labor Day (not a holiday at VU in case you have forgotten) to talk about her summer at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Very good experience! She is off to the University of Minnesota to begin graduate studies in biophysics.