Dr. Emily Draeger

Biography

Emily Draeger received her B.S. degree in physics from the University of Minnesota, Duluth in 2009 and pursued her Ph.D. in experimental high energy/nuclear physics at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Her work contributed to the Daya Bay Antineutrino Experiment, leading to her receiving the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2014. After obtaining her Ph.D., Draeger completed a Medical Physics Post-Graduate Certificate program at the University of Pennsylvania in 2015 and subsequently a postdoctoral position at the University of Maryland, where she focused on prompt gamma proton range verification. Her post-doctoral research led to multiple awards, manuscripts, and a patent. During her time at the University of Maryland, she worked on the design of irradiation protocols for testing new cancer therapeutics aimed at mitigating health effects caused by radiation exposure. She completed her therapeutic medical physics residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital in 2020 and joined the institution's medical physics department as an assistant professor in 2021. Her research continues to focus on brachytherapy applications, biology-guided radiotherapy, and Monte Carlo modeling techniques.

Research Interests

Experience