Roles
Assistant Professor of Clinical
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Biography
Dr. Galanakou is a Medical Physicist and Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiation Oncology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Ioannina in Greece, where her undergraduate thesis focused on implementing an MRI quality control protocol for the University of Ioannina Hospital, based on AAPM Task Group 100 recommendations. During this time, she also completed an ERASMUS+ Fellowship at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, gaining valuable international academic experience and exposure to advancements in medical physics.
Building on this foundation, Dr. Galanakou moved to the United States to pursue graduate education at Florida Atlantic University. She completed a CAMPEP-accredited Professional Science Master’s in Medical Physics, a Master of Science in Physics, and a Ph.D. in Physics, where her dissertation focused on non-radioactive elements for prompt gamma enhancement in proton radiation therapy. During her graduate research, she developed a GPU-based simulated annealing algorithm for IMRT optimization, highlighting her strong computational and analytical skills.
She then completed her Therapeutic Medical Physics Residency at the University of Miami, where she gained extensive clinical expertise and hands-on experience with a broad range of advanced treatment modalities, including Varian Edge and TrueBeam systems, Ethos adaptive radiotherapy, HDR brachytherapy, Eye Plaque, Y-90, TBI, TSET, IORT, proton therapy, and SRS/SBRT procedures. -
Education & Training
Education
Licensures and Certifications
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Teaching Interests
Dr. Galanakou’s teaching interests center on treatment planning techniques and the practical aspects of clinical radiation oncology physics. She is particularly passionate about providing students and trainees with hands-on experience in quality assurance procedures and bridging theoretical concepts with real-world clinical applications. While at Florida Atlantic University, she served as a teaching assistant for undergraduate physics laboratories. -
Research Interests
Dr. Galanakou’s research focuses on advancing in-vivo range verification techniques for proton and carbon ion therapy. Using TOPAS Monte Carlo simulations, she has developed innovative approaches to enhance prompt gamma detection by introducing non-radioactive elements into the target region and modeling nuclear interactions and dose effects. She has also explored carbon ion beam range verification through prompt gamma production and Doppler shift analysis to improve range accuracy. Her current interests include proton therapy, development of knowledge-based treatment planning models for VMAT, and image-guided adaptive radiotherapy. -
Publications
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