Soleil Hernandez, Ph.D., DABR
Department of Radiation Physics, Division of Radiation Oncology
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Radiation Physics - Patient Care, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2023 | The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, Texas, US, Medical Physics, Doctor of Philosophy |
| 2018 | Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, US, Radiological Health Engineering, Bachelor of Science |
Postgraduate Training
| 2026-2026 | Varian TrueBeam Training, Varian TrueBeam Platform for Physicists Hybrid (TB201), Las Vegas Education Center, Las Vegas, Nevada |
| 2023-2025 | Medical Physics Resident, Therapeutic Medical Physics, The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado |
| 2018-2023 | Graduate Research Assistant, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas |
Licenses & Certifications
| 2026 | American Board of Radiology |
| 2025 | Texas Medical Board |
Experience & Service
Other Professional Positions
LAUNCH Undergraduate Research Scholar, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 2016 - 2017
Aggie Research Scholar, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 2016 - 2017
Honors & Awards
| 2024 - 2025 | AAPM Science Council Associate, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) |
| 2021 - 2023 | John and Charlene Kopchick Fellow, UT Health Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences |
| 2021 - 2023 | CPRIT Graduate Scholar Award - RP210028, Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas |
| 2020 - 2022 | SWAAPM Young Investigator Symposium, Southwest Regional Chapter of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine |
| 2020 | SWAAPM Young Investigator Spmposium, Southwest Regional Chapter of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine |
| 2020 | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) |
| 2020 | Matthew Mireles Scholarship Recipient, UT Health Student InterCouncil |
| 2018 | Aggie Research Scholar, Texas A&M |
| 2017 | Neff-Poston Scholarship Recipient, Southwest Chapter of the Health Physics Society |
| 2016 | AAPM Dream Fellow, American Association of Physicists in Medicine |
Professional Memberships
Selected Presentations & Talks
Local Presentations
- 2022. AI & Auto-Segmentation. Invited. Radiology: Artificial Intelligence TEB Committee. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2022. Automating the treatment planning process for 3D-conformal pediatric craniospinal irradiation therapy. Invited. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2022. Advancing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Medical Physics. Invited. COMP Career Catalyst (C3) Seminar Series. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2020. Development of 2D Automatic Dental Artifact Classification Tool. Invited. 2020 SWAAPM Annual Meeting. Grapevine, Texas, US.
Regional Presentations
- 2022. Society of Directors of Academic Medical Physics Programs (SDAMPP) annual meeting, 07/2022. Invited. Society of Directors of Academic Medical Physics Programs (SDAMPP) Annual Meeting. Washington, DC, US.
- 2022. Automating the Contouring and Treatment Planning for Pediatric 3D Craniospinal Irradiation Therapy. Poster. AAPM 64th Annual Meeting. Washington, D.C, District of Columbia, US.
- 2022. Development and Dosimetric Assessment of an Automatic Dental Artifact Classification Tool to Guide Artifact Management Techniques in a Fully-Automated Treatment Planning Workflow. Invited. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2022. The medical physics graduate experience – from dream fellow to PhD candidate. Invited. APM DREAM Summer Seminar Series. Washington, DC, US.
- 2022. Automating the Treatment Planning Process for Single-Field Pediatric 3D Craniospinal Irradiation Therapy. Invited. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2022. Development of 2D Automatic Dental Artifact Classification Tool. Poster. 2022 SWAAP Annual Meeting. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2022. DEI in academic medical physics – a unique student perspective. Invited. 2023 Association of Radiation Oncology Program Administrators Annual Meeting. Nashville, Tennessee, US.
- 2021. Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluation of Translating an Adult Auto-Contouring Algorithm to Pediatric Patient. Poster. AAPM 63rd Annual Meeting. Houston, TX, US.
- 2021. AAPM 63rd Annual Meeting & Exhibition - Meeting Program. Poster. AAPM 63rd Annual Meeting. Houston, TX, US.
- 2020. Needed Gains to Save Young Brains. Invited. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2019. Dose Estimation for a PENTEC Late Effects Study. Poster. 2019 AAPM Annual Meeting. San Antonio, TX, US.
International Presentations
- 2022. AI in Pediatric CSI. Invited. Society of Neuro-Oncology in Sub-Saharan African (SNOSSA). Sub-Saharan, ZA.
- 2022. “Medical physics and beyond: career pathways, exciting research topics and commitment to the advancement of underrepresented minorities in STEM. Invited. SACNAS National Diversity in STEM Conference. San Juan, US.
- 2022. Automating the Contouring and Treatment Planning for Pediatric 3D- 5 Soleil Hernandez Craniospinal Irradiation Therapy. Pediatric Radiation Oncology Society Annual Meeting, 06/2022. Poster. 2022 Pediatric Radiation Oncology Society (PROS) Annual Meeting, DE.
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Baroudi H, Chen X, Cao W, El Basha MD, Gay S, Gronberg MP, Hernandez S, Huang K, Kaffey Z, Melancon AD, Mumme RP, Sjogreen C, Tsai JY, Yu C, Court LE, Pino R, Zhao Y. Synthetic Megavoltage Cone Beam Computed Tomography Image Generation for Improved Contouring Accuracy of Cardiac Pacemakers. J Imaging 9(11):245, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37998092.
- Hernandez S, Burger H, Nguyen C, Paulino AC, Lucas JT, Faught AM, Duryea J, Netherton T, Rhee DJ, Cardenas C, Howell R, Fuentes D, Pollard-Larkin J, Court L, Parkes J. Validation of an automated contouring and treatment planning tool for pediatric craniospinal radiation therapy. Front Oncol 13:1221792, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37810961.
- Nelson CL, Nguyen C, Fang R, Court LE, Cardenas CE, Rhee DJ, Netherton TJ, Mumme RP, Gay S, Gay C, Marquez B, El Basha MD, Zhao Y, Gronberg M, Hernandez S, Nealon KA, Martel MK, Yang J. A real-time contouring feedback tool for consensus-based contour training. Front Oncol 13:1204323, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37771435.
- Baroudi H, Huy Minh Nguyen CI, Maroongroge S, Smith BD, Niedzielski JS, Shaitelman SF, Melancon A, Shete S, Whitaker TJ, Mitchell MP, Yvonne Arzu I, Duryea J, Hernandez S, El Basha D, Mumme R, Netherton T, Hoffman K, Court L. Automated contouring and statistical process control for plan quality in a breast clinical trial. Physics and Imaging in Radiation Oncology. Phys Imaging Radiat Oncol 28:100486, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37712064.
- Hall MD, Howell RM, Jackson A, Owens CA, Hernandez S, Castellino SM, Ronckers CM, Constine LS, Bradley JA. Liver Late Effects in Childhood Cancer Survivors Treated With Radiation Therapy: A PENTEC Comprehensive Review. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 119(2):575-587, 2023. PMID: 37480885.
- Hernandez S, Nguyen C, Gay S, Duryea J, Howell R, Fuentes D, Parkes J, Burger H, Cardenas C, Paulino AC, Pollard-Larkin J, Court L. Resection cavity auto-contouring for patients with pediatric medulloblastoma using only CT information. J Appl Clin Med Phys 24(7):e13956, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36917640.
- Hernandez S, Nguyen C, Parkes J, Burger H, Rhee DJ, Netherton T, Mumme R, La Vega JG, Duryea J, Leone A, Paulino AC, Cardenas C, Howell R, Fuentes D, Pollard-Larkin J, Court L. Automating the treatment planning process for 3D-conformal pediatric craniospinal irradiation therapy. Pediatr Blood Cancer 70(3):e30164, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36591994.
- Baroudi H, Brock KK, Cao W, Chen X, Chung C, Court LE, El Basha MD, Farhat M, Gay S, Gronberg MP, Gupta AC, Hernandez S, Huang K, Jaffray DA, Lim R, Marquez B, Nealon K, Netherton TJ, Nguyen CM, Reber B, Rhee DJ, Salazar RM, Shanker MD, Sjogreen C, Woodland M, Yang J, Yu C, Zhao Y. Automated Contouring and Planning in Radiation Therapy: What Is ‘Clinically Acceptable’?. Diagnostics Basel, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36832155.
- Huang K, Hernandez S, Wang C, Nguyen C, Briere TM, Cardenas C, Court L, Xiao Y. Automated field-in-field whole brain radiotherapy planning. J Appl Clin Med Phys 24(2):e13819, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36354957.
- Naessig M, Hernandez S, Astorga NR, McCulloch J, Saenz D, Myers P, Rasmussen K, Stathakis S, Ha CS, Papanikolaou N, Ford J, Kirby N. A customizable aluminum compensator system for total body irradiation. J Appl Clin Med Phys 22(10):36-44, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34432944.
- Hernandez S, Sjogreen C, Gay SS, Nguyen C, Netherton T, Olanrewaju A, Zhang LJ, Rhee DJ, Méndez JD, Court LE, Cardenas CE. Development and dosimetric assessment of an automatic dental artifact classification tool to guide artifact management techniques in a fully automated treatment planning workflow. Comput Med Imaging Graph 90:101907, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 33845433.
- Shusharina N, Bortfeld T, Cardenas C, De B, Diao K, Hernandez S, Liu Y, Maroongroge S, Söderberg J, Soliman M. Cross-Modality Brain Structures Image Segmentation for the Radiotherapy Target Definition and Plan Optimization. LNCS Lecture Notes in Computer Science 12587:3-15, 2021. e-Pub 2021.
- Su L, Li R, Khan S, Clanton R, Zhang F, Lin Y, Song Y, Wang H, Fan J, Hernandez S, Butters AS, Akabani G, MacLoughlin R, Smolen J, Wooley KL. Chemical Design of Both a Glutathione-Sensitive Dimeric Drug Guest and a Glucose-Derived Nanocarrier Host to Achieve Enhanced Osteosarcoma Lung Metastatic Anticancer Selectivity. J Am Chem Soc 140(4):1438-1446, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29350522.
Abstracts
- Granger B, Nelson C, Vindu W, Hernandez S. Automated Analysis Tool for Annual Beam-Scanning QA. American Association of Physicists in Medicine, 2026. e-Pub 2026.
- Shusharina N, Bortfeld T, Cardenas C, De B, Diao K, Hernandez S, Liu Y, Maroongroge S, Söderberg J, Soliman M. Cross-Modality Brain Structures Image Segmentation for the Radiotherapy Target Definition and Plan Optimization. Segmentation, Classification, and Registration of Multi-modality Medical Imaging Data 12587:3-15, 2021. e-Pub 2021.
- Merveille CB, Susan AL, Galindo T, Sunny SM, Dehghanpour M, Hernandez S, Chung C, Olanrewaju AM, Court LE. Approach to account for the impact of dental artifacts on VMAT dose distributions when using automated treatment planning. Medical Dosimetry 45(4):400, 2020. e-Pub 2020.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified August 18, 2026