Helping others: How this science student found her calling in medical physics

March 7, 2025
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Jenny Zhu, a UBC fourth-year honours physics student

This is a version of the the UBC Faculty of Science article published here on March 3rd, 2025.

Jenny Zhu, a UBC fourth-year honours physics student, is helping improve outcomes for breast cancer patients. Through the university’s co-op program, she has been working with the radiation oncology team at BC Cancer on exciting research with the potential to change lives.

“Currently, I’m researching whether flattening-filter free beams for breast cancer radiation therapy can lead to potential skin side effects—which can be very severe for patients—and ultimately cut down treatment time,” she shares. "I’m also looking at a breast cancer treatment called regional node irradiation to see if the dose received in the internal mammary chain could impact patient survival rates, especially among those with medial tumours.”

Jenny’s area of research is medical physics, which is the application of physics to healthcare treatment and technology development. After she completes her undergraduate degree at UBC, she intends to go to graduate school and carve out a career as a medical physicist. It’s hard to believe that just three years ago, she had not even considered focusing her undergraduate studies on physics, let alone pursuing a career in physics research. 

A physics research experience that changed everything

In her first year as a science student at UBC, Jenny wasn’t sure she truly belonged, particularly in her physics classes.

“Physics is typically a male-dominated field, so there weren’t many women I could look up to in these classes,” she recalls. “I struggled. I felt really alone and too intimidated to ask questions. It was a classic case of impostor syndrome.”

So when her physics instructor suggested she apply for the Erich Vogt First Year Summer Research Experience (FYSRE), she questioned if it was right for her. The program offers paid summer research experiences—at UBC or TRIUMF—to budding academic stars after their first-year physics courses at the university. Putting her doubts aside, Jenny applied for the donor-supported FYSRE award to participate in the program. The rest is history.

“FYSRE changed everything for me,” Jenny says. “Before the program, I had never thought about physics research as a possible career or something undergrads could even participate in.”

The experience enabled her to put into action the research principles she’d learned in her first year. More importantly, according to Jenny, it also gave her access to a community of scientists who encouraged her ideas and valued her questions.

“Suddenly, I was in the same room as researchers,” says Jenny. “I felt so lucky to have this amazing community of scientists to learn from, and the opportunity to participate in actual research projects.”

Paying it forward

As a result of her experiences, Jenny is committed to empowering younger girls to pursue science by sharing her passion for physics. On behalf of the UBC Department of Physics and Astronomy, she has led physics demonstrations and workshops for young girls at events, including the Girls and STEAM Summit 2024.

At UBC, she is just as busy helping other science undergrads—especially women—who may be struggling as she had. As the co-president of the UBC Undergraduate Physics Society, she leads initiatives to inspire and support the next generation of physicists. Jenny is also an undergraduate teaching assistant for the Department of Physics and Astronomy, a science peer academic coach, the vice chair of the 2024 Canadian Undergraduate Physics Conference, the subsystem lead at UBC Orbit, and a panelist at the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards. Building on her experience in UBC Science One (a program that immerses first-year students in core science disciplines), she revived the Science One Survivors Club to help students connect with one another and became its first president.

“The FYSRE award kickstarted my school and career path,” Jenny says about the donor-funded award. “I want the donors who support the award to know that their generosity has made a big difference in my life and the lives of others—through my work as a future medical physicist and a champion for science education among young people.”

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