Faculty Directory

Christopher Cagnon, PhD

Professional Training & Experience

• Professor of Radiology & Biomedical Physics,David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Present
• Chief, Radiology Physics, UCLA Radiological Sciences, Present
• ABR Board Certification: Diagnostic Imaging Physics, Present
• NLST / ACRIN Physics Committee, National Lung Screening Trial / American College of Radiology Imaging Network, Present
• Radiation Safety Committee, University of California Los Angeles, Present
• Board Member: Heart Foundation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Present
• Associate Professor of Radiology & Biomedical Physics,David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 2011-2017
• President, Southern California Chapter, American Association Physicists in Medicine , 2005
• Assistant Professor of Radiology & Biomedical Physics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA,2003-2011
• Radiologic Technology Certification Committee, California Dept. of Health Services, Radiologic Health Branch, 2002-2004
• Doctor of Philosophy: Biomedical Physics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 2002
• Master of Science: Biomedical Physics, UCLA Medical School,1996-1996
• Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Science, California State University Northridge, 1989-2000
• Adjunct Assistant Professor of Physics & Astronomy, California State University Northridge, 1988-2000

Research Interests

Dr. Cagnon’s research interests involve the physics of computed tomography (CT) image acquisition, including estimating radiation dose and assessing image quality. In addition, he is a faculty member of the NIH-sponsored UCLA Biomedical Physics Graduate Program. www.pbm.ucla.edu

Current Research Projects

• Monte Carlo Based Patient Radiation Doses from CT
  The purpose of this work is to develop and test a method to estimate the relative and absolute absorbed radiation dose from axial and spiral CT scans using a Monte Carlo approach.
• National Lung Screening Trial (NLST)
  The NLST is a joint collaboration between the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) and the Lung Screening Study and has enrolled over 50,000 older smokers that have been screened annually with either chest radiographs or low dose helical CT. Medical outcomes will be collected on these participants through 2009 to determine differences in lung cancer specific mortality between the two screening technologies. Dr. Cagnon is a member of the ACRIN-NLST physics Committee, whose responsibility it is to ensure standardization of imaging protocols, certification of imaging equipment, and ongoing periodic evaluation of equipment calibration and image quality.

Selected Awards & Honors

• 2007: Certificate of Merit for Education Exhibits, Report of CT Dose Indices Derived from Measurements Made on all Multi-Detector Row CT Scanners Used in the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). Cody, D, Cagnon, C, Larke, F, McNitt-Gray, M, Kruger, R, Flynn, M. et al.  Radiological Society of North America
• 2002 Sylvia Sorkin Greenfield Award: Excellence in Medical Imaging, Biomedical Physics Graduate Program
• 2001 ACMP Award Graduate Researcher,, American College of Medical Physics,
• 2002SCC-AAPM Bailey Award Monte Carlo Simulation of Computed Tomography Southern California, Chapter, American Association of Physicists in Medicine

Publications

Link to my PubMed Publications »