Twyla Willoughby, PhD, FAAPM
Physicist
Dr. Twyla Willoughby is a medical physicist and assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Florida, working at the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute. As a medical physicist, she assists the medical team in optimizing the treatment plans for each patient. She helps determine the best proton therapy delivery technique and patient positioning to ensure the most accurate and effective treatment option is used.
Dr. Willoughby has worked as a medical physicist for more than 25 years and has several years of experience as a proton therapy physicist, specifically. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida’s medical physics graduate program after completing her Master’s degree in Medical Physics at the University of Texas. Dr. Willoughby has published more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and continues to contribute to the advancement of proton physics research through her work as a reviewer for prominent medical journals, such as International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics and Physics in Medicine & Biology.
Dr. Willoughby is active in the Florida AAPM (American Association of Physicists in Medicine) and has served in leadership roles for the AAPM over the years as President of the FL AAPM and Chair of AAPM Task Group 147. She was honored as a Fellow of the AAPM in 2019 for dedication to advancements in medical physics. Dr. Willoughby has two patents for devices and methods to improve radiation therapy treatment delivery. She also has a passion for teaching and has been an instructor for multiple radiation physics and radiation therapist training programs.
Board Certification
Radiology – Therapeutic Radiologic Physics – American Board of Radiology
Doctorate – Biomedical Engineering
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Masters – Medical Physics
University of Texas, Houston, TX
Bachelors – Engineering Physics
Northwest Nazarene College, Nampa, ID
Dr. Willoughby’s research is focused on tracking patient and tumor movement during radiation treatments and discovering ways to improve the accuracy of treatments for these tumor sites. Her research involves looking at the use of different systems that track tumor movement and determining the best way to use the systems when treating patients.
Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine
AAPM (2019)
“Working at UF Health Proton Therapy Institute provides me with the opportunity to work with world-renowned experts and cutting-edge technology to bring the best treatment to our patients.”
Find Dr.Willoughby’s publications through PubMed*
*Please note, the resulting PubMed entries may not reflect a complete or accurate listing for faculty members. Many journals are not indexed by PubMed, and there may be articles by other authors of the same name listed for each search.