The UWMRRC was established in 1977 within the Medical Physics section, Department of Radiology of the School of Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The laboratory was approved as a secondary standards laboratory by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) and as an Accredited Dosimetry Calibration Laboratory (ADCL) by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), in 1981.

The UWMRRC’s contribution to radiation metrology is well documented. The instrumentation for the national mammography standard (the Attix Free-Air Chamber) was developed and built at the UWMRRC and transferred to NIST in 1996. An Attix Free-Air Chamber unit is installed in the UWMRRC, and it serves as an active and important research tool. The UWMRRC’s brachytherapy calibration protocol is the national standard for both high dose rate (HDR) and pulse dose rate (PDR) ¹⁹²Ir sources.

The UWMRRC was instrumental in the development of the air kerma calibration and dosimetry standard for electronic brachytherapy sources (eBT).

The UWMRRC is a Medical Physics Department facility which occupies approximately 8,000 square feet in the lower level of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR). The UWMRRC is completely self-funded through AAPM-accredited calibration services, with private industry-funded research contracts supplementing our research program. The UWMRRC employs 12 professional staff and supports 10-15 research assistants. In addition to AAPM accreditation, the UWMRRC is accredited by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and ANSI Z540-1-1994 standards since 2001. Our reputation for advanced, comprehensive technical support and service is recognized worldwide.

Mission Statement
The UWMRRC mission is to Educate current and future members of the medical physics community, conduct cutting-edge metrology Research on medically-relevant ionizing radiation and provide quality medical physics Services to the global community.

Vision Statement
The UWMRRC is a collaborative hub, working across multi‐disciplinary boundaries, to bring together standards laboratories, researchers and industry to create the next breakthroughs in medical physics and develop the metrological standards to enable their safe and effective use.

Our accredited calibration lab serves our customers with a dedication to responsiveness and education. We continue to develop new capabilities while maintaining a commitment to quality in metrology and dosimetry.

Through our commitment to education and engagement with the medical physics community we prepare and empower our graduates to have a positive impact both as leaders in medical physics and as the caretakers of its future.