Joseph Santoro, PhD

Joseph P. Santoro, PhD, DABR, is the assistant director of medical physics in the Department of Radiation Oncology at NYU Long Island School of Medicine.  In this role he participates in and oversees the technical aspects of the radiation therapy program as well as the comprehensive departmental quality assurance program. Dr. Santoro helps lead a team of physicists and dosimetrists who provide the expertise to ensure that patients receive safe and effective radiation therapy treatments across all delivery platforms: conventional linear accelerator, CyberKnife, Radixact, and high-dose-rate brachytherapy modalities.

Dr. Santoro came to the field of medical physics from experimental particle physics. He has utilized his skills as an experimental particle physicist, such as expertise in advanced statistical methods, programming, machine learning, and data mining to sift through massive amounts of raw data to draw meaningful conclusions, make informed decisions from data, and derive actionable insights to improve the overall quality of patient care. Throughout his tenure at NYU, he has authored and contributed to numerous professional abstracts and presentations targeted at improving patient outcomes as well as improving upon existing radiation treatment paradigms.

Dr. Santoro serves on various committees within the medical physics community including as an Angoff validation volunteer for the initial certification exam, and a member of the Maintenance of Certification improvement committee for the American Board of Radiology. He also serves as a co-chair of a radiation safety task group for the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Radiology in Therapeutic Medical Physics and completed his clinical training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.