An undergraduate curriculum in the Physics of Neuroimaging reflects an innovative vision to attract and motivate students to pursue careers in quantitative neurosciences. This program will help students overcome two currently held barriers in the pursuit of such studies: (1) the broad and interdisciplinary nature of the subject makes a graduate program in computational neurosciences quite intensive and (2) the lack of a strong mathematics and physics foundation makes innovation and understanding challenging at higher levels. This proposed 5- year program intends to fill this niche by building a proper foundation for such careers and by serving as a feeder program for graduate schools within the state and the nation. The program will also provide relevant fundamental groundwork in physics and mathematics for students to feel comfortable in crossing over into neurosciences. The program will be housed in the Department of Physics at California State University, Fresno (Fresno State). Nestled in the San Joaquin Valley of California, Fresno State's large minority population, which contributed to its designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) by the Department of Education, will provide a strong pool of underrepresented racial/ethnic groups from which to recruit program participants. The range of specialized courses will include from human anatomy and physiology, neuroanatomy to magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy of the human brain, radiation health physics, diagnostic radiology, measurement systems and instrumentation, conduct of research, and nuclear medicine and its application in neurology. The proposed curriculum and classroom instruction will be enhanced by actual clinical training in local area medical centers, summer internships at prospective graduate schools, state-of-the-art laboratories in research institutions, and structured seminars with one-to-one interaction with the best researchers in the country to motivate and inspire the students with the current cutting edge technologies. In addition, on-going dialogue with faculty and program staff will aid students in their career choices. Students will provide continuous feedback to determine needed modifications to ensure a successful program.
