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Welcome

Purpose: A small group of physicists formed the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) in 1958 "to promote the application of physics to medicine and biology, to encourage interest and training in medical physics and related fields, and to prepare and to disseminate technical information in medical physics and related fields."

Membership: All memberships are renewed annually and follow the calendar year schedule. Status of membership in AAPM should reflect a current Member’s career position. Members are required to change their membership status as their position in the medical physics profession changes.

President Bruce Thomadsen's 2018 introduction to AAPM structure, current initiatives, and volunteering in AAPM.

AAPM is composed of 8,500 medical physicists, 30% of whom serve in at least one of 300 committees. In this introduction, Bruce introduces us to the leadership structure and how you can get involved in AAPM. Your local Chapter can help you make connections with other medical physicists, Chapter leadership can help convey your questions and ideas to AAPM leadership, and after observing your Chapter, you could run for Chapter office. Attending committee, subcommittee, working group, and task group meetings gives you an opportunity to hear about what that group is doing, join as a guest so that you'll receive their e-mails, and potentially volunteer to help that group.

President Melissa Martin's 2017 introduction to AAPM and how you can become involved in its leadership.

Melissa recommends joining leadership at the Chapter meeting and volunteering for the less glamorous subcommittees, working groups, and task groups. The more you're involved, the more people know you, and the more likely you are to be asked to serve or recognized when you apply. We have Yellow Pages ads called the committee classifieds, which allow you to see what committees need help, and applying for these is a great way to get involved. Most committees meet Saturday and Sunday of the AAPM Annual Meeting, and you can come be a guest of almost any of these committees.

About Us




Membership Services and Benefits

Forms of Interest

More Benefits of Membership

  • AIP and IOMP Affiliation: AAPM is a member society of the AIP (American Institute of Physics) and the IOMP (International Organization of Medical Physics); as such, AAPM Members (except Corresponding and International Affiliate who need to opt-in to receive the papercopy) receive the AIP’s journal, Physics Today, free with their paid membership, as well as discounted subscriptions to dozens of other physics publications, including Computing in Science & Engineering. Those already receiving Physics Today through other AIP membership(s) will not receive two copies.

  • Career Services: AAPM maintains a Career Services, the AAPM Bluebook, that allows AAPM Members to search or browse position listings online. The powerful Job Search feature allows members to specify a search criteria to be saved so that each time a new ad that meets that criteria is approved and published online, an email notification will be sent via email.

  • Committee Participation: AAPM has more than 100 councils, committees, subcommittees, and task groups that meet at least twice a year to discuss, determine, research, and/or publish information important to the profession of medical physics and to its practitioners. AAPM has published over seventy task group reports; they are published in Medical Physics when appropriate, or published separately and mailed to all AAPM members in the subsequent monthly mailing. Each year, the AAPM President-Elect calls for Members to request committee assignments for the following year. The standard duration for a committee appointment is one three-year term.

  • Emilio Segrè Visual Archives (ESVA): For AAPM-sponsored projects, 300dpi images from the Emilio Segrè Visual Archives can be requested free of charge for non-sales use. Please contact AAPM for further details.

  • ICRU Publications: AAPM has entered into an organizational subscription agreement with the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) to provide access to ICRU publications to AAPM members at at no cost to the member.

  • Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics (JACMP): JACMP is an open-access journal, which publishes papers that will help clinical medical physicists perform their responsibilities more effectively and efficiently for the increased benefit of the patient.

  • Medical Physics Journal: Each AAPM Member and Affiliate are granted access to the AAPM peer-reviewed, scientific journal, Medical Physics Journal online. Full, Resident, Junior, and Associate will receive print issues of Medical Physics according to the quarter in which they join. All other categories of Membership and Affiliation may subscribe to the print version of the journal for a small additional fee.

  • Meetings: AAPM holds an Annual Meeting each year during the summer. This five-day meeting includes scientific and continuing education sessions, technical exhibits, and paper displays. Please contact AAPM for more information. At the RSNA (Radiological Society of North America) Meeting each autumn, designated AAPM Members are responsible for the physics scientific program; as such, the RSNA invites all AAPM individual Members to register at a reduced fee. For RSNA Meeting registration information, please contact the RSNA at (630) 571-2670.

  • Membership Directory: The online AAPM Membership Directory contains the current information for each calendar year, including names of executive officers, dates for upcoming meetings, lists of the Board of Directors and Regional Chapter officers, lists of each existing council, committee, and task group and its members, and the current version of the AAPM By-Laws and Rules. Members are requested each quarter to correct their “directory address” (which is not necessarily the same as the mailing address) for the alphabetical and geographical listings in the directory and the web site.

  • Online NCRP Publications: AAPM has entered into an organizational subscription agreement with the National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP) to provide Online NCRP Publications to AAPM members at no cost to the member. This agreement extends to all digitally-available NCRP Publications in the past (going back to 1971), and includes NCRP Publications that will be produced in the future.

  • Professional Survey: Every Spring, AAPM requests salary and occupation data from each of its North American members. The data is analyzed and posted online in June for member-only access.

  • Regional Chapter Affiliation: There are 20 AAPM Regional Chapters. Each chapter holds its own meetings, elects its own officers, and sends a Board Representative to the national Board of Directors’ meetings. Individuals who have interests similar to the objectives of AAPM but who are not eligible or do not wish to be members of AAPM may be members of one or more Regional Chapters.

  • Spring Clinical Meeting: The Spring Clinical Meeting provides practical information designed to help medical physicists integrate emerging technologies into the clinical environment and keep abreast of regulatory and accreditation related issues, and also provides a forum for the exchange of ideas in support of practice quality improvement. It was previously known as the ACMP Annual Meeting.

  • Summer School: Each Summer, AAPM hosts a Summer School on a university campus in North America, focusing on applications in medical physics. The subject alternates between diagnostic and therapy topics from year to year. Please contact AAPM for more information on our next Summer School.

  • Web Site: All of the above information AND MORE is available at AAPM Online. There is a section for Members Only and a section of general information. The AAPM application can be found here. Members have access to the Online Membership Directory, the Online Career Services, the Online Medical Physics Journal, and other Members Only sections.

  • Joint ESTRO Membership:

Membership Categories & Requirements - 2021

  • Full:
    Dues $488 (plus $50 application fee)
    Dues Years 1 - 4 $438 (plus $50 application fee)
    Full COMP Members reduced dues amount: $342 | Dues Years 1 - 4 reduced dues amount: $292
    Full Membership is open to individuals who possesses an earned graduate degree in the Physical or Biological Sciences, Computer Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, or Engineering from a college, university or program accredited by one of the organizations recognized by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (or its successors), or an equivalent foreign degree. Applicants must be engaged in professional, research, or academic activity related to applications of physics in medicine and biology. This may include qualified individuals from such nontraditional medical physics associated fields as computer science and engineering and clinical or bioengineering. Applicants must attest that they will abide by the AAPM Code of Ethics and should have an interest in the purposes of this corporation
    • To promote the application of physics to medicine and biology.
    • To encourage interest and training in medical physics and related fields.
    • To prepare and to disseminate technical information in medical physics and related fields.
    Applicants for Full membership will not need to satisfy any post degree work/experience requirements to be approved. Applications shall be supported by two Full and/or Emeritus Members in good standing who have personal knowledge of the applicant.

  • Corresponding:
    Dues $195* (electronic Medical Physics Journal only) (plus $50 application fee)
    Corresponding Membership is open to those scientists or engineers residing outside North America who qualify for, but are not interested in, Full membership.
    *Paper copy of the Medical Physics Journal is available for an additional $130 per year

    A Corresponding Member shall not be a permanent resident of the United States, or a temporary resident for more than six months.

  • Resident:
    Dues $146     (plus $50 application fee)
    Resident Membership is open to Residents in CAMPEP Accredited Residency Programs. Individuals shall be a Resident and shall provide an annual attestation from a program director of a CAMPEP Accredited Residency Program that they are currently eligible for Resident Membership on that basis.

  • Junior:
    Dues $146 (plus $50 application fee)
    Individuals shall be a Postdoctoral Student, a Resident in a Non-CAMPEP accredited program, or Fellow on a full- or part-time basis in a medical physics training program and shall provide an annual attestation from a Full Member of the Association that they are currently eligible for Junior Membership on that basis.

  • Associate:
    Dues $488 (plus $50 application fee)
    Associate Membership may be held by individuals who are interested in the application of physics to medicine and biology and in the purposes of this corporation, but who are ineligible for Full Membership.

  • Student:
    Dues $49 (plus $25 application fee)
    Dues Waived 1st Year (Undergraduate)
    The individual shall be an Undergraduate or Graduate Student on a full- or part-time basis who is enrolled in a degree program in the Physical or Biological Sciences, Computer Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, or Engineering (which may include a work-study program) at an accredited college or university who has an interest in applications of physics in medicine and biology and who is not otherwise employed in the applications of physics in medicine and biology. Students shall provide annual attestation from their program director that they are currently eligible for Student Membership.

  • Emeritus:
    Dues $0*
    Emeritus membership is intended for members who have completed a career in medical physics and have retired from the field of medical physics. Applicants must have been a Full member of AAPM for 10+ consecutive years and be over the age of 55.
    *Paper copy of the Medical Physics Journal is available for an additional $65 per year

  • Emeritus Associate:
    Dues $0*
    Emeritus membership is intended for members who have completed a career in medical physics and have retired from the field of medical physics. Applicants must have been an Associate member of AAPM for 10+ consecutive years and be over the age of 55.
    *Paper copy of the Medical Physics Journal is available for an additional $65 per year

Affiliate Categories & Requirements - 2021

  • International Affiliate
    Dues $49 (electronic Medical Physics Journal only) (plus $50 application fee)
    International Affiliation is open to those Medical Physicists residing in developing countries, who are interested in the Association but who do not meet the degree requirements for membership or who are unable to obtain required letters of support for membership.
    *Paper copy of the Medical Physics Journal is available for an additional $130 per year

  • Professional Affiliate
    Dues $195 (electronic Medical Physics Journal only) (plus $50 application fee)
    Professional Affiliate is open to individuals who are members of professional societies that are related to the radiological sciences, but are not eligible for Student, Junior, Resident, or Full membership.
    *Paper copy of the Medical Physics Journal is available for an additional $130 per year