HomeBiography & curriculum vitae

A life shaped
by curiosity.

I’m Udbhav Ram, or Udi. I’m a Medical Physics PhD student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, working with Dr. Ran Zhang. My path brings together clinical research, software, motorsport, and teaching.

Public CV · Updated October 2026
Udbhav Ram outside the McMaster physics building
At McMaster University · Source

Physics, with
people in view.

My research sits where medical images, computational tools, and clinical decisions meet. I work on questions in image segmentation, radiation treatment planning, adaptive radiotherapy, and AI-assisted workflows.

My connection with McMaster began before my undergraduate degree. Mentorship from Ben Davis-Purcell gave me the chance to sit in on physics courses and meet my first research supervisor. I began research work in 2019, before starting my degree in 2021.

I studied Honours Medical Physics with Co-op at McMaster University. A research collaboration with Dr. Carlos Cardenas at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) began remotely in 2021 and grew into an eight-month visiting-scholar placement in radiation oncology in 2024. I returned to Birmingham for a second co-op in 2025.

That work has included physician-reviewed organ segmentation, single-isocenter radiosurgery planning, local language models for naming quality assurance, and contouring uncertainty in adaptive breast treatment. My doctoral chapter at Wisconsin continues the connection between AI, imaging, and cancer care, including an interest in vision-language models for medical imaging and radiation oncology.

There’s an engineering thread too: race strategy at Arrow McLaren, vehicle controls with Formula SAE, robotics, full-stack software, and hands-on fabrication. You can explore those projects alongside the research, rather than as a footnote to it.

Outside work, I ride horses, play music, and dive. I hold PADI Advanced Open Water Diver and Enriched Air Diver (Nitrox) qualifications, confirmed in 2025.

Life outside the labCurrent research biography

Chapters
along the way.

Education and selected experience. Parallel research, engineering, and community work have often overlapped.

  1. 2026–present
    Department of Medical Physics · Dr. Ran Zhang

    Doctoral research at UW–Madison

    Medical Physics PhD student working at the intersection of AI, medical imaging, segmentation, vision-language models, and radiation treatment planning.

    Read the source
  2. 2026
    Honours Medical Physics with Co-op

    McMaster graduation & co-op recognition

    Completed the undergraduate chapter at McMaster and received the Science Co-op Student of the Year award for Year 5. Institutional coverage also describes the UAB–McMaster ambassadorship and mentorship work.

    Read the source
  3. 2024–2025
    UAB Department of Radiation Oncology

    International visiting-scholar experience

    Visiting-scholar research built on an earlier remote collaboration with Dr. Carlos Cardenas. Work connected clinical AI, treatment planning, physician review, and student opportunities between UAB and McMaster.

    Read the source
  4. 2023
    Arrow McLaren IndyCar · Indianapolis

    Race strategy & data engineering

    Developed deterministic strategy-prediction simulation and worked with race-weekend telemetry, performance tools, and race-engineering projects during a data-and-strategy internship.

    Read the source
  5. 2021–2026
    McMaster University

    Medical physics at McMaster

    Honours Medical Physics with Co-op, alongside research, software engineering, Formula SAE, outreach, and teaching. Research collaboration with UAB began in 2021.

    Read the source
  6. 2020
    Molecular Nutrition & Food Research

    An early biophysics publication

    Co-authored work on the effects of resveratrol, caffeine, beta-carotene, and EGCG on amyloid aggregation in synthetic brain membranes.

    Read the source

More research affiliations include Hamilton Health Sciences / Juravinski Cancer Centre, Western University / Lawson Health Research Institute, the Hamilton Centre for Kidney Research, and McMaster’s Laboratory for Membrane and Protein Dynamics.

Open the full institution, affiliation, and project breakdown →
Mentorship, advocacy & service

Opening doors
for other people.

The UAB–McMaster relationship became more than a research placement. As an undergraduate ambassador, I helped connect students and faculty across the institutions and shared the experience with students considering their own path.

My undergraduate-era role as a Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health Trainee Scholar included student outreach, information sessions, and helping coordinate the McMaster Spring Symposium and UAB–McMaster Summer Program. As a Science Co-op mentor, I helped students navigate job searches, resumes, interviews, and international placements.

My earlier community work includes lead mentorship with Robotique Zone01, programming and outreach with FIRST Robotics Competition Team 4939, and French-language STEM program coordination with Sparkin’ STEM.

I’ve also volunteered across medical imaging, surgical inpatient, and information services at Humber River Hospital, and taught yoga in community and university settings. My science-policy work includes the Journal of Science Policy & Governance’s 2023 ambassador cohort.

Udbhav Ram with his UAB clinical AI mentor
Research and mentorship at UAB · Source

Recognition
and community.

Selected milestones, with the full evidence-labelled record available to explore.

2026 · McMaster University

Science Co-op Student of the Year

Recognized as the Year 5 recipient. My UAB supervisors travelled from Alabama for the presentation.

Read the McMaster story
2025 · AAPM

Blue Ribbon Poster

Research on locally hosted language models for radiation-oncology nomenclature and quality assurance.

Explore the research