The Department

	Students and staff of the Department study the Principles of Rotational Dynamics at Alton Towers.

The Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering has been for many years a joint department of University College London (UCL) and the UCL Hospitals Trust (UCLH). The academic and research work of the Department has now moved onto the main UCL campus into the new Malet Place Engineering Building. It also has laboratories on several other nearby sites including: University College Hospital / The Middlesex Hospital, the Institute of Neurology, the Institute of Laryngology (EAR Institute) and at the Whittington Hospital.

The spectrum of Medical Physics activities undertaken in this Department is probably the broadest of any in the United Kingdom. UCL staff are principally involved in the pursuit of academic research, including industrial contract research, and teaching activities associated with the graduate and post-graduate degrees offered by the Department. In addition to Undergraduate and PhD training, the Department offers MScs in Physics with Radiation Physics, and Biomedical-Engineering with Medical Imaging.

The major research groups are:
• the Biomedical Optics Research Group (BORL)
• the Centre for Medical Image Computation (CMIC)
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Radiation Physics
• Implanted Devices
• Neurophysiology
• the Continence Technology Group

Overall UCL numbers include about 80 staff and 40 PhDs.

The Department has both access and research links with the UCL School of Medicine, but also with (more fundamental) groups in Life Sciences, in Engineering Science and in the Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. The access to a wide range of clinically used instruments (for example the largest collection of MRI scanners in Europe) is of particular importance. While the Department was originally in the Faculty of Clinical Sciences, it has now been part of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences for two years, and is considered to be well placed to provide a bridge between Healthcare, Clinical Science, Engineering, and Basic Science.

Members of the Department have therefore access to an exceptionally wide range of workshop, laboratory and clinical facilities. The Department now includes the Wolfson Laboratories for Medical Physics and Bioengineering. There are also substantial departmental computing facilities, including a range of modern computers and workstations, including a recently commissioned multi-processor cluster. The links with the Dept. of Computer Science, with whom the Department is now co-located, is especially important. These facilities allow fundamental ideas and inventions to be taken from initial development to full clinical trials and subsequent commercial manufacture where appropriate.