Hunter Mehrens, PhD
Department of Radiation Physics, Division of Radiation Oncology
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Physics, Division of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2024 | University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston - MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, US, Medical Physics, Doctor of Philosophy |
| 2015 | University of Pittsburgh - Main Campus, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, Physics, Master of Science |
| 2010 | Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida, US, Physics, Mathematical Sciences, and Space Sciences: Astronomy/Astrophysics, Bachelor of Science |
Licenses & Certifications
| 2025 | Medical Physicist License |
Honors & Awards
| 2024 - Present | Invited Participant to Emerging Leaders of Academic Medical Physics Symposium, University of Wisconsin |
| 2024 - Present | Presidents' Research Scholarship, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston – MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2024 - Present | Finalist in the Elevator Speech Competition (Post-Candidacy), University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston – MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2024 - 2025 | AAPM/RSNA Doctoral and Masters Graduate Fellowship, American Association of Physicists in Medicine |
| 2023 - Present | First Place Award in the Elevator Speech Competition (Post-Candidacy), University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston – MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2023 - 2024 | CPRIT Graduate Scholar Award, MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2022 - Present | Top Cited Article, Journal of Applied Medical Physics |
| 2022 - Present | First Place Award in Oral Presentation Skills Competition (Pre-candidacy & MS category), University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston – MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2022 - 2024 | Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Travel Award, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston – MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2022 - 2023 | American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship in Cancer Research, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston – MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2013 - 2014 | MNTP Graduate Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh |
| 2010 - 2011 | Arts and Science Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh |
| 2010 | Undergraduate Teaching Assistantship for Applied Mathematics, Florida Institute of Technology |
| 2009 - Present | Outstanding Senior in Physics and Astronomy/Astrophysics, Florida Institute of Technology |
| 2009 - Present | Phi Kappa Phi, Florida Institute of Technology |
| 2009 - Present | Sigma Pi Sigma, Florida Institute of Technology |
| 2009 - 2010 | Astronaut Scholarship, Florida Institute of Technology |
| 2008 - Present | Outstanding Junior in Physics and Astronomy/Astrophysics, Florida Institute of Technology |
| 2008 - 2010 | Distinguished Student Scholar, Florida Institute of Technology |
| 2007 - Present | Phi Eta Sigma, Florida Institute of Technology |
| 2006 - 2010 | Dean's List, Florida Institute of Technology |
| 2006 - 2010 | Florida Institute of Technology's Presidential Scholarship, Florida Institute of Technology |
Professional Memberships
Selected Presentations & Talks
Regional Presentations
- 2023. Interplay of Treatment Parameters and Complexity on Performance of an IROC IMRT Phantom Using Machine Learning. Conference. Young Investigator Symposium SWAAPM 2023. Galveston, Texas, US.
National Presentations
- 2024. Modeling Dose Delivery Accuracy in a Head and Neck Phantom with Treatment Parameters and Machine Learning for a Multi-Institutional Study. Conference. 66th Annual Meeting of AAPM. Los Angeles, California, US.
- 2023. Analysis of Performance and Failure Modes of the IROC Proton Liver Phantom Using Machine Learning. Conference. 65th Annual Meeting of AAPM. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2022. Complexity and Treatment Parameters Impact On IROC Lung Phantom Performance Evaluated Using Random Forest. Conference. 64th Annual Meeting of AAPM. Washington DC, US.
- 2022. Complexity and Treatment Parameters Impact On IROC Head and Neck Phantom Performance Evaluated Using Random Forest. 64th Annual Meeting of AAPM. Washington DC, US.
- 2021. Treatment Parameters That Impact IROC SRS Phantom Performance Evaluated Using AI. Conference. 63rd Annual Meeting of AAPM. Virtual, US.
International Presentations
- 2025. Interpretable machine learning in radiation therapy: Identifying key factors of dose delivery accuracy using IROC’s dosimetry audits. Conference. IUPESM World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 2025. Adeladie, AU.
- 2025. Exploring variability in CT parameters and radiomics: A multi-institutional radiotherapy simulation phantom study. Conference. IUPESM World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 2025. Adeladie, AU.
- 2024. Predicting outcome of IROC’s thoracic moving dosimetry audit with random forest modeling. Conference. ESTRO Congress 2024. Glasgow, GB.
- 2023. Analysis of Performance and Failure Modes of the IROC Proton Liver Phantom. Conference. ESTRO Congress 2023. Vienna, AT.
- 2023. Analysis of Performance and Motion Management Technique of the IROC Thoracic Phantom. Conference. ESTRO Congress 2023. Vienna, AT.
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Duan L, Mehrens H, Kry SF, Lowenstein JRL, Hernandez N, Acuna Scafati LB, Taylor PA. Trends and Challenges: A 15-Year Review of Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core Anthropomorphic Phantom Audits for Proton Therapy. Int J Part Ther 19:101297, 2026. e-Pub 2026. PMID: 41584861.
- Taylor PA, Mehrens H, Glenn MC, Brooks F, Scott H, Duan L, Meyers T, Rojas DC, Yang M, Alvarez P, Lowenstein J, Molineu A, Kry SF. Reference dosimetry data and machine performance comparison for tomotherapy delivery systems audited by IROC. J Appl Clin Med Phys 26(12):e70390, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 41253711.
- Campelo S, Perles L, Mehrens H, Ellison D, Schipull E, Balter P, Nitsch P, Beddar S, Sawakuchi G, Ludmir E, Martin-Paulpeter R, Niedzielski J. Standardized Commissioning Workflow for Wide-Spread Clinical Implementation of Lattice Radiation Therapy. Med Phy. e-Pub 2025.
- Kaffey Z, Mirbahaeddin S, Wahid K, Kamel S, Vouffo M, Otun AO, Belal Z, Aponte Wesson RA, Carriere PP, Dede C, Maniakas A, Goepfert RP, Garden AS, Lee A, Choi KY, Christensen JM, Lincoln C, Manzar GS, Dudzinski SO, Thomas R, Mehrens H, Cardoso RC, Schellingerhout D, Watson E, Chen MM, Lai SY, Fuller CD, Moreno AC, Humbert-Vidan L. Radiographic classification of mandibular osteoradionecrosis: A blinded prospective multi-disciplinary interobserver diagnostic performance study. Radiother Oncol 208:110917, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40320174.
- Shiqin S, Gao S, Liang X, Casey K, Mehrens H, Zhiqian H, Kim Y, Hassanzadeh C, Tang C, Tran PT, Schofield D, Balter P. Simulated Online Adaptive Radiotherapy on C-arm Linacs: Integrating High Resolution Cone-Beam CT into Abdominal Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy. JACMP. e-Pub 2025.
- Brooks FMD, Glenn MC, Hernandez V, Saez J, Mehrens H, Pollard-Larkin JM, Howell RM, Peterson CB, Nelson CL, Clark CH, Kry SF. A radiotherapy community data-driven approach to determine which complexity metrics best predict the impact of atypical TPS beam modeling on clinical dose calculation accuracy. J Appl Clin Med Phys 25(5):e14318, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 38427776.
- Mehrens H, Taylor P, Alvarez P, Kry SF. Analysis of Performance and Failure Modes of the IROC Proton Liver Phantom 10(1):23-31, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37823015.
- Mehrens H, Molineu A, Hernandez N, Court L, Howell R, Jaffray D, Peterson CB, Pollard-Larkin J, Kry SF. Characterizing the interplay of treatment parameters and complexity and their impact on performance on an IROC IMRT phantom using machine learning. Radiother Oncol 182:109577, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36841341.
- Mehrens H, Douglas R, Gronberg M, Nealon K, Zhang J, Court L. Statistical process control to monitor use of a web-based autoplanning tool. J Appl Clin Med Phys 23(12):e13803, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36300872.
- Mehrens H, Nguyen T, Edward S, Hartzell S, Glenn M, Branco D, Hernandez N, Alvarez P, Molineu A, Taylor P, Kry S. The current status and shortcomings of stereotactic radiosurgery. Neurooncol Adv 4(1):vdac058, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35664554.
- Taylor PA, Alvarez PE, Mehrens H, Followill DS. Failure Modes in IROC Photon Liver Phantom Irradiations. Pract Radiat Oncol 11(3):e322-e328, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 33271351.
- Mehrens H, Taylor P, Followill DS, Kry SF. Survey results of 3D-CRT and IMRT quality assurance practice. J Appl Clin Med Phys 21(7):70-76, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32351006.
- Kry SF, Glenn MC, Peterson CB, Branco D, Mehrens H, Steinmann A, Followill DS. Independent recalculation outperforms traditional measurement-based IMRT QA methods in detecting unacceptable plans. Med Phys 46(8):3700-3708, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31152568.
- Kang Y, Shen J, Liu W, Taylor PA, Mehrens H, Ding X, Hu Y, Tryggestad E, Keole SR, Schild SE, Wong WW, Fatyga M, Bues M. Impact of planned dose reporting methods on Gamma pass rates for IROC lung and liver motion phantoms treated with pencil beam scanning protons. Radiat Oncol 14(1):108, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31208439.
- Jin T, Iordanova B, Hitchens TK, Modo M, Wang P, Mehrens H, Kim SG. Chemical exchange-sensitive spin-lock (CESL) MRI of glucose and analogs in brain tumors. Magn Reson Med 80(2):488-495, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29569739.
- Jin T, Mehrens H, Wang P, Kim SG. Chemical exchange-sensitive spin-lock MRI of glucose analog 3-O-methyl-d-glucose in normal and ischemic brain. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 38(5):869-880, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 28485194.
- Jin T, Mehrens H, Wang P, Kim SG. Glucose metabolism-weighted imaging with chemical exchange-sensitive MRI of 2-deoxyglucose (2DG) in brain: Sensitivity and biological sources. Neuroimage 143:82-90, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27570111.
- Jin T, Mehrens H, Hendrich KS, Kim SG. Mapping brain glucose uptake with chemical exchange-sensitive spin-lock magnetic resonance imaging. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 34(8):1402-10, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24865996.
Abstracts
- Mehrens H, Su S, Yu H, Kim Y, Tang C, Hassanzadeh C, Mohamad O, Choi S, Song G, Balter P, Han E. Daily Adaptation of Abdominal SBRT Plans Using C-Arm Linac Hypersight CBCT and RayStation. ASTRO 67th Annual Meeting 2025.
Patents
- Jin T, Kim SG, Mehrens H, Hendrich K. Mapping glucose uptake and metabolism with chemical exchange-sensitive spin-lock MRI. Patent Number: 10,203,389.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified October 12, 2026