This interview first appeared in The Target, a print publication of the Department of Radiation Oncology, as part of their Women in Research series, which highlights the everyday efforts and successes of women in Radiation Oncology.

Dr. Xuejun Gu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at UT Southwestern. She earned her Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering from Tianjin University and her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Columbia University. Her research interests revolve around online adaptive radiotherapy, brain radiosurgery, and non-sedated pediatric radiation treatment. Dr. Gu recently discussed her experience as a woman in research.

Q: What inspired you to start a career in radiation oncology, science, and research?

XG: I have been interested in physics ever since I was in middle school, and it was something I was very good at. I wanted to major in science and engineering, while my parents strongly recommended medicine, so I chose a career in biomedical engineering where I could cover both the engineering and the medicine. After I came to the U.S., I got my Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and after graduation I started looking for a job. I found this medical physicist career path in radiation oncology that fit my career goal well. As a medical physicist, not only do I closely work with physicians to directly help with patient treatment on a daily basis, but I also conduct research in science and engineering topics to address general radiation physics problems in the field.

Q: What do you feel are your most exciting achievements and discoveries in the field?

XG: I started as a clinical physicist at UTSW in 2011. The most exciting things are also the most difficult things I need to overcome. For example, if we’re looking back, the most exciting achievement is that we are able to treat bone marrow transplant patients with our newly developed total body irradiation (TBI) technology. This new TBI technology allows those very sick patients to be accurately treated on their comfortable flat-back position rather than the conventional standing position. That was really challenging at the time because no one did that before. Not only did we need to design and fabricate a body frame to assist treatment, but we also needed to educate and train clinical staff to implement a brand-new treatment workflow. It took several iterations to construct the body frame and a year to make the entire treatment workflow smooth, and now 3 years later the majority of the therapists and physicians in our Department accept this clinical workflow. This new TBI technique not only benefits patients, but also clinical staff who won’t need to worry about patients falling down. To me, it is a really big achievement.

Q: What are you most proud of and what has been the biggest challenge in your career?

XG: There are a lot of challenges for me coming into the field. Coming from a bioengineering background, I’m not originally trained in medical physics. I started my career kind of training on the job; I took this clinical physicist job and I have to deal with all these daily workflows I haven’t seen before. Another challenge I have to face is balancing the clinical and research aspects; I have to allocate my time for both with clinical duties and research projects. I am proud of the excellent job I have done in balancing the clinic and research and making the two time-conflicting tasks help each other. My clinical work inspires my research ideas, and the research helps to solve problems in clinical duties.  

Q: Fewer women than men begin a career path in science. Did you experience any difficulties in scientific environments that are historically male-dominated?

XG: I don’t think that women cannot be in research and science; if they are good at it, then they should be. Of course, compared with men, naturally women are bounded more toward the family and have to devote more time to their kids. Balancing the family and the career is quite challenging.

Q: What do you think can be done to increase recruitment and retention of women in science?

XG: If we want more women working in this research and science field, then we should start them early in middle and high school where we should encourage women to be interested in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). If they are interested in STEM, then naturally they will go into this career rather than just getting tracked into it after graduation.

Q: What advice do you have for women trying to get into this career?

XG: You have to love your job. If you don’t love your job, I don’t think you can do it well. In radiation oncology, when you help patients, you feel like your job is meaningful, and that encourages you to work hard every day to help the patients in the best way possible. If you are such a person, I would definitely advise you to come into radiation oncology.