Dr. James A. Purdy was born in Tyler, Texas on July 16, 1941. He received a B.S. in Math and Physics from Lamar University in 1967 and a M.A. (Physics, 1968) and Ph.D. (Nuclear Physics, 1971) from the University of Texas at Austin. He then received postdoctoral training in medical physics at M.D. Anderson Hospital. In 1973, he went to Washington University School of Medicine where he is served until June 2004. At Washington University he rose to the rank of Professor of Radiation Physics in the Department of Radiation Oncology and served both as Director of the Radiation Physics Division and Associate Director of the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology's Radiation Oncology Center. On July 1, 2004 he joined the University California, Davis Medical Center’s Department of Radiation Oncology faculty as Professor and Vice Chair, and head of the departments Physics Section (james.purdy@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu).

Dr. Purdy has participated actively in the scientific/professional activities of the American Association of Physicist in Medicine (AAPM), serving as President in 1985. In addition, he has served as a member or chair of 7 AAPM Task Groups, numerous AAPM committees, served as chair of the Science Council, participated in several AAPM International Scientific Exchange Programs, and has been the director of an AAPM Summer School. Dr. Purdy is also very active in many other scientific/professional organizations including the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO), the American College of Radiology (ACR), the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), the American Board of Radiology, the American Board of Medical Physics (ABMP), and the American College of Medical Physics (ACMP). Dr. Purdy has been Chairman of the Board of Chancellors of the ACMP, Vice-Chairman of the ABMP, and served on the ASTRO Board of Directors, as that organization’s first elected physicist board member. In addition, he served as the Senior Editor (Physics) for the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics (1996-2002) and as a member of the NIH Radiation Study Section, Division of Research Grants (1991-1995).

Dr. Purdy’s research is directed toward image-based treatment planning and conformal radiation therapy including the development and implementation of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), and associated quality assurance (QA). Over the past 34 plus years in the field, he has authored or co-authored 160 peer reviewed manuscripts and 129 additional book chapters and symposium proceedings articles. In addition, he has edited 9 textbooks. He has been the principal investigator in 9 funded research grants totaling several million dollars. Dr. Purdy is also active in the continuing development of standard nomenclature for dose/volume specifications used in prescribing, recording, and reporting radiation therapy results. He is particularly interested in radiation oncology informatics efforts including the development of systems that can be used to receive, share, and analyze volumetric multi-modality treatment planning, imaging, and verification digital data, which can be linked with clinical outcome data. He currently serves as the Principal Investigator for the NIH supported Advanced Technology QA Consortium (ATC) and Director of the Image-Guided Therapy QA Center (ITC), which supports advanced technology clinical trials quality assurance.

Dr. Purdy has been recognized for his contributions to medical physics and radiation oncology and has been awarded Fellow status in the AAPM, ACMP, and ACR, and was one of the inaugural group selected to become an ASTRO Fellow in 2006. He has received many other prestigious awards including the 1996 ACMP Marvin M.D. Williams Professional Achievement Award and the 1997 AAPM William D. Coolidge Award Award for Distinguished Contributions to Medical Physics, the two highest honors bestowed by U.S. Medical Physics societies. In addition, he was awarded the 2000 ASTRO Gold Medal and the 2002 ACR Gold Medal.