New adjunct faculty: Physics welcomes back alumnus Raphael Jakubovic

Raphael Jakubovic (external link)  (Biomedical Physics ’17) came to Ryerson as a science undergraduate and eventually stayed on for eleven years. Impressed by the abundant research opportunities, he earned all three degrees — Bachelor (’11), Master (’13) and PhD — and then headed off to New York for residency training.
Jakubovic has since been working as a clinical medical physicist in Canada and the U.S. Most recently, his Ryerson connection has come full circle with an appointment as adjunct faculty in the Department of Physics.

Path to success laid at Ryerson
Since his undergraduate days, Jakubovic thrived in the department’s research-rich environment. He advanced progressively on a variety of research projects, including a landmark study under the supervision of professor Victor Yang on craniospinal surgical navigation, which was eventually published in Nature’s Scientific Reports (external link) .

“I owe a great deal to my supervisors who opened up many opportunities for me. My Master’s supervisor Dr. Ana Pejović-Milić, especially, always pointed me in the right direction for research, even where some areas were not her own specialty,” Jakubovic reflects. “The department had fostered a network where even someone relatively young could tap into Toronto’s vast resources and work with top-of-the-line researchers on cutting-edge themes. It was a really nice breeding ground for success, and I felt well positioned to grow academically.”

Residency training and working life
Jakubovic cites another key factor that helped move his career forward: the decision to pursue a doctoral degree accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs (CAMPEP).

“Medical physics residencies are highly competitive, especially at the bigger, more prestigious schools where you could be interviewing along with 20 other people for a single position,” he says. “Coming out with a CAMPEP certification, I was very well positioned academically. My CV lined up well with other top-tier candidates, and I was admitted to a clinical therapeutic medical physics residency program at Northwell Health (external link)  in Long Island, New York.”

After gaining extensive clinical experience in a variety of radiotherapy settings, Jakubovic landed a position as Medical Physicist at Niagara Health in St. Catharines, Ontario and very quickly advanced into the role of Radiation Safety Officer — another success in a very tight Canadian medical physicist job market.

“Ontario is one of the more desirable places to work, but it can be quite competitive. However, there are lots of opportunities in the U.S,” says Jakubovic. “If a young graduate is willing and able to move down, the pay is not only higher, but there are many more opportunities. New York state alone has almost as many physicists as we have in all of Canada!”

Jakubovic himself recently relocated to Vero Beach, Florida to take up a role as Clinical Physicist at Cleveland Clinic (external link) , a non-profit academic medical center and one of the top hospital networks in the U.S.

Outlook on medical physics
In the few years since graduating from Ryerson in 2017, Jakubovic has already seen rapid change in the medical physics field — and he sees exciting times ahead.

“Radiation treatment was always considered the standard, but the paradigm is now shifting where we view cancer with a chronic disease mindset rather than a palliative one,” he explains. “Technology has progressed so much that we can now target tumours better with higher doses. So, there’s a definite and growing need for people who understand the physics side of treatment.”

Jakubovic also foresees exploding growth in artificial intelligence and automation: “Even just four years ago, these technologies were in their infancy, but the terminology has quickly evolved and become part of the day-to-day lexicon.. These are new frontiers, and a real opportunity for young graduates. They’ll have skills that older medical physicists never learned.”

Contemplating his own career goals, Jakubovic aims to eventually take up administration and management. While clinical work is still his bread and butter, he’s also working on current research interests in failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) analysis and development of couch motion optimization techniques.

Jakubovic has been involved in course development and guest lecturing on radiation therapy at Ryerson. He’s also taught radiation dosimetry to treatment planners and radiation physics residents. With his recent appointment as adjunct faculty, Jakubovic is well positioned to help his alma mater in nurturing next-generation talent.