Volunteer Spotlight – MP: She Found Her Home in Birmingham and Nuclear Medicine
By ABR Associate Director of Communications Rodney Campbell
April 2026;19(2):10
When Sharon White, PhD, joined the medical physics section of the radiology department of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) as a postdoctoral fellow in 2000, she wasn’t sure how long she would be there.
“I saw an ad in Physics Today for a postdoc position,” she said. “I came down and thought I’d be here a couple of years and hope that I could get a job afterward.”
She’s now a professor in the radiology department at UAB who’s celebrating more than 25 years on campus. Her opportunity materialized in 2002 when Michael Yester, PhD, assumed physics division director duties, opening a spot for her to join the team.
Dr. White had expressed interest in nuclear medicine and was asked to take over primary clinical responsibility in the discipline. It was a career turn; she took math and physics classes in high school and college but didn’t plan to pursue medicine. Her original goal was to find a career in high-energy physics, which investigates the fundamental constituents of matter and radiation, along with their interactions.
“I really liked the nuclear medicine that I had done during my postdoc,” said Dr. White, who holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in physics. “I just fell into it.”
That was before UAB had a medical physics residency program, which Dr. White now leads. She spends some of her week instructing trainees from both the MP and diagnostic radiology programs.
Her MP trainees benefit from watching her clinical work, including testing nuclear medicine cameras and PET scanners.
“I always include my medical physics residents in the things I do,” she said.
Dr. Yester, now professor emeritus at UAB, said Dr. White leaves a positive impression on her trainees and he’s been proud to watch his colleague thrive over more than two decades.
“She has always had great reviews from students of all the courses she has taught,” he said. “Sharon is very personable and eager to assist anyone at any time. It has been very rewarding to work with her over the years and see the growth from fellow to professor.”
Dr. White also works as an ABR volunteer, writing questions and serving as an oral examiner. Working with trainees helps her set expectations for candidates when they take Initial Certification exams.
“It helps because you’re much more aware of the stage that they’re in and their learning experience,” she said. “You shouldn’t expect them to know everything, but they should know some basic level.”
Gathering with peers from across the country and from different work environments to put together an exam or go through the oral exam process is a learning experience for volunteers. Dr. White’s recent volunteer work was mostly with diagnostic radiologist committees, but her background includes duties with fellow physicists.
“It’s fun to get to meet other people on the committees,” Dr. White said. “It was especially fun when we had the oral nuclear medicine committee, because we could meet in person and it was all physicists. I enjoyed that a lot.”
The ABR has more than 1,300 volunteers who write exam and OLA questions, give oral exams, and serve on Initial and Continuing Certification committees. Having subject matter experts like Dr. White giving their time enables the ABR to fulfill its mission.
“It’s important to give back to the profession and help uphold the standards of board certification,” she said. “If people didn’t contribute, it would be impossible to have exams.”
