express - the university of liverpool · 2016. 10. 21. · a summer job within the radwatch group...
TRANSCRIPT
ExpressOctober 2016
Issue 1
Highlights
• Who is who in
OMA
• OMA welcomes
first Fellows
• Upcoming OMA
Events
Although public knowledge ofaccelerator physics has increasedin recent years with the work atCERN on the Large HadronCollider, many people would notknow that they benefit fromaccelerators in every aspect oftheir lives.In fact, tens of millions ofpatients receive accelerator-based medical diagnoses andtherapy every year. The mostwidely known products ofmedical accelerators are X-rays,which are used for imaging andcancer treatment, andradioactive isotopes, which areused for diagnosis. More recentlythe use of proton beam therapyhas caught the media's attentionas it offers a more targetedtreatment for some cancer types,especially for children. However,despite its value to health andindustry, accelerator science isstill an emerging area of scienceand this creates excitingopportunities for research.OMA is a new pan-Europeantraining programme that targetsthe ‘Optimisation of MedicalAccelerators’.
A cohort of 15 Fellows who wererecruited from all over the worldhave started the projects thismonth and will push the frontiersfor the use of accelerators inadvanced cancer treatment.OMA is positioned at theinterface between life sciences,physics and engineering topresent an interdisciplinaryapproach. We have broughttogether leading partners fromuniversities, research centres,industry and clinical centres tohelp define and develop a cuttingedge research programme. OurFellows will get the opportunityto work with leading researchinstitutes but also to havecontact with potential end-usersof the technology.OMA will also offer a number ofinternational events, such asSchools, Topical Workshops andConferences which will also beopen to participants from outsideof the network. The OMA Expresswill be published quarterly andpresent highlights from thenetwork and our Fellows.
Enjoy !
Optimisation of Medical Accelerators
Prof. Carsten P. WelschOMA Coordinator
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OMA ConsortiumOMA is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie EuropeanTraining Network coordinated by theUniversity of Liverpool. The network iscomprised of 14 beneficiary partners, 11associated partners and a growing number ofadjunct partners.Each beneficiary hosts one or two early stageresearchers (ESR), each dedicated to a
specific research project. Associated andadjunct partners play an important role in thenetwork-wide training and providesecondment places for the trainees inrelevant scientific areas. Partners come fromacademia, research centres, clinical facilitiesand industry, thus providing an ideal cross-sector research and training environment.
Who is who in OMA
Beneficiaries
Partner Organizations
Adjunct Partners
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Steering CommitteeThe Steering Committee is responsible for the overall network strategy and takes all thedecisions concerning the network. It consists of the following elected members:
Prof Dr Joaquín Gómez Camacho, Director of Centro Nacional
de Aceleradores in Seville, Spain, which provides infrastructure forparticle accelerator - based fundamental and applied research. Hisresearch focus is on the scattering of exotic nuclei on heavy targets.
Dr Christian Graeff, leader of the Medical Physics group of the
GSI Biophysics department in Darmstadt, Germany. His main research interests are the treatment of moving targets with scanned ion beams, including treatment planning strategies and their experimental validation.
Dr Monica Necchi, Research Grants Manager at Fondazione CNAO
in Pavia, Italy. Her main research interests deal with application of physics into the biomedical field and interactions of radiation with matter.
Dr Julien Smeets, Research Project Manager at Ion Beam
Applications SA in Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium. His research focuses on prompt gamma imaging and its development for proton therapy.
Prof Dr Carsten P. Welsch, Head of the Physics Department of
the University of Liverpool and scientific coordinator of the OMA network. His research covers frontier accelerators, novel acceleration schemes, as well as accelerator applications.
A Fellows’ representative will join the Steering Committee in
due time.
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EU T.E.A.M.Day to day project management is carriedout by the EU Project T.E.A.M. from theUniversity of Liverpool based at theCockcroft Institute in Daresbury, UK. TheT.E.A.M. supports Prof Carsten Welsch incoordinating the EU – funded projects and isresponsible for project management,
monitoring, communication, and organisationof events.Magda Klimontowska is the project managerfor OMA, Samina Faisal provides financialproject administration and Alexandra Welschis responsible for developing and managingthe websites and social media profiles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUs_M5WOAu8
Magda Klimontowska Samina Faisal Alexandra Welsch
This short video presents activities of the EU Project T.E.A.M.:
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OMA welcomes first Fellows Thirteen Fellows have already been recruited to the OMA project. Below we present the onesthat have recently started work in their host institutions, with other Fellows to be introduced in thenext issue.
Welcome to OMA!
Network News
In July 2016, Navrit Bal received a PhysicsMPhys degree from the University of Kentwith a study abroad year at the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley.At Kent, his undergraduate Masters thesiswas based on a series of computationalmaterial simulations entitled: Simulating thedensity of states, band structure, Fermisurface of cobalt and copper at 0-200 GPa.His final year modules included rocketry andhuman spaceflight, particle and quantumphysics, magnetism and superconductivityand finally topics in functional materials. Healso co-founded the Physics Society (PhySoc)and was Treasurer for 2 years.At Berkeley, mostly Physics and NuclearEngineering classes were taken which led intoa summer job within the RadWatch group at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory(LBNL). This is where he was the primarydeveloper for the DoseNet project, a networkof custom-made dosimeter devices, primarilyremotely installed in schools in the SanFrancisco Bay Area and now at a number ofsites around the world.
In September 2016 Navrit joined the OMAproject at ASI (Amsterdam ScientificInstruments) working on Medipix3 detectors.
Project:A versatile high-speed radiation detectionplatform
Navrit Bal
Laurent Kelleter
Laurent Kelleter obtained his Bachelor degreein physics in 2013 from RWTH AachenUniversity. He graduated with a work on theset-up of a SiPM-based muon detectorprototype which is now in use in the Master'slaboratory class of astroparticle physics tomeasure atmospheric air showers. Afterspending a year abroad at the university ofMontpellier, France, he obtained his Master'sdegree in experimental particle physics inMarch 2016. For his Master's thesis heworked on future online beam monitoring inion therapy using prompt gamma radiation.
After completing his studies he drew up apublication on the team's results incollaboration with Jagiellonian University inKraków, Poland.Laurent joined the OMA network to work atUCL. His project will focus on the integrationof a SuperNEMO calorimeter in aradiography/QA system for proton therapy.
Project:Calorimeter for proton therapy andradiography
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Ewa Oponowicz
Ewa studied biomedical engineering andphysics at the Warsaw University ofTechnology, Poland. She obtained herBachelor’s degree in 2013 in cooperation withNational Centre for Nuclear Research inPoland where she worked on the beamforming systems in medical electronaccelerators.She graduated in 2015 from the NationalSchool of Engineering in Nantes, France. HerMaster’s degree was done at CERN, whereshe was a Technical Student in the BeamInstrumentation group. Her work focused on
the software development for the beamposition and intensity measurement systemsin the Antiproton Decelerator.In 2016 Ewa joined the OMA project atUniversity of Manchester to work on a gantrydesign for Linac-boosted protons.
Project:Gantry Design for Linac-boosted Protons
Liheng Tian
Liheng Tian received his Bachelor’s degree inParticle Physics and Nuclear Physics at theUniversity of Science and Technology of Chinain 2013. From 2013 to 2016, he studiedmedical physics at Institute of ModernPhysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Hispaper focused on the use of radioactive 9C inradiotherapy. He has experience with MonteCarlo simulation for radiotherapy.Tian joined the OMA network in 2016 at LMU.
His project is committed to combining theMonte Carlo and imaging method forradiotherapy.
Project:Advanced Monte Carlo and imaging methods
Johannes Petzoldt
Johannes Petzoldt studied Physics at theTechnische Universität Dresden, Germany. Heobtained his Diploma in March 2013, with aproject on neutron and proton activation ofnatural neodymium for the SNO+ experiment.Until September 2016, he worked as anassistant researcher on the topic "rangeverification for proton therapy" at OncoRay inDresden, Germany. Johannes investigatedscintillation materials as well as the beamcharacteristics at the proton therapy facilitywith respect to the novel Prompt GammaTiming (PGT) method. Furthermore, he testedand characterized a PGT prototype system forthe application in clinical practice.Johannes joined the OMA project to work atIon Beam Applications (IBA) in Louvain-La-
Neuve, Belgium. There, he will continue hisresearch on range verification based onprompt gamma rays. The focus is set on thefurther clinical implementation of theprototype of the knife-edge slit camera. Theaim is to improve the clinical workflow and todevelop routines for determining the causesof range shifts during the treatment based onmeasurements by the slit camera.
Project:Imaging solutions for a novel prompt gammacamera
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Jacinta Yap
Jacinta graduated with a Bachelor of Sciencemajoring in Mechanical Engineering from theUniversity of Western Australia in 2014.Thereafter, she pursued a Masters in MedicalRadiation Physics with the Centre for MedicalRadiation Physics (CMRP) at the University ofWollongong. Her thesis was a study of theRelative Biological Effectiveness (RBE) inproton beam therapy by application of anovel silicon microdosimeter. RBE wasderived given a microdosimetric approachwhere experimental data was evaluatedalongside Monte Carlo simulations generatedusing Geant4. Throughout her study sheengaged in short summer internships in theMedical Physics Research Department, Sir
Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Australiaand at the National Cancer Centre, SingaporeGeneral Hospital in Singapore.Jacinta was awarded her MSc with Distinctionin July 2016 and following this, joined theOMA project where she will be working inparallel towards a PhD with the University ofLiverpool.
Project:Halo-Dose correlation in a medicalaccelerator
Hanen Ziri
Hanen Ziri obtained her bachelor’s degree inbiomedical engineering, biomedicalinstrumentation specialty, in 2011 and herfirst master’s degree in biomedicalengineering, medical imaging specialty, in2013, both from the Higher Institute ofMedical Technologies of Tunis. During herstudies she worked on medical image andsignal processing using MATLAB. Hanenobtained her second master’s degree inmedical physics in 2016 from the University ofGrenoble-Alpes. Her studies in Franceinvolved work in an interdisciplinarylaboratory of physics in Grenoble to develop asoftware in MATLAB to interface a novelCMOS camera, designed for functionalimaging at high resolution, withelectrophysiology instrumentation. Her
master research was conducted in thedepartment of radiation physics at theuniversity of Texas MD Anderson cancercenter. It was related to particle therapy andscintillator detectors use for proton beamquality assurance.In October 2016 Hanen joined the OMAproject as a fellow at the CNAO in Pavia. Shewill work on refinement of the interfacingbetween the optical tracking system and thedose delivery system in active beam scanningparticle therapy.
Project:Tumour tracking in particle therapy
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Last open positions in the OMA project!There are two ESR positions available in theOMA Project: at Paul-Scherrer Institute inSwitzerland and at Vialux, a private companyin Germany.The project at PSI RF-based Measurement ofUltra Low charges will focus onimprovements or development of newdiagnostic systems that play an importantrole to optimize medical treatment schemes.Currently, ionization chambers are the mostcommonly used detector type for beamintensity measurement. However, they usethin foils which are crossed by the beam anddecrease the beam’s quality by scattering. Tomitigate this problem a Fellow shall develop asensitive RF-based current monitor for fullynon-interceptive beam current measurementand shall study the possibilities to measurethe beam position. The system improvementswill target measurement of beam currents ata very low beam intensity. The design will bebased on previous developments at PSI and
will also take into account developments atother OMA institutions.Within the project at Vialux a Fellow will workon development of New encodingmethodologies for ultra-fast 3D surfacescanning. They will combine a time sequenceof binary patterns with partial dithering ineach of these bit plane patterns in thesequence. Furthermore, a Fellow will designand analyze methodologies of fringe patterngeneration that work with a minimum of bitplanes and provide the maximum precisionfor 3D-scanning to achieve ultra-highscanning speeds, maintaining the typicalquality of phase shifting measurements. Both,theoretical and experimental work will beperformed, starting from the basic patterngenerator up to the full evaluation of 3D scanresult in a corresponding laboratory setupand comparison with alternative techniquesstudied within OMA.Details on how to apply can be found here
New partners on boardOMA consortium is pleased to announce accession of two new adjunct partners to the network.
C-RAD Positioning, a company based in Sweden, is a market leader in the development of
optical systems for the purpose of fast and accurate patient positioning and treatment in the fieldof radiation therapy. Its Sentinel and Catalyst products are installed all over the world, in linearaccelerators as well as proton facilities.
DTBS (Healthcare department) of CEA-LETI in Grenoble, France, works on integration of
technologies in systems using X-ray or gamma-ray for medical imaging, security, NDT andenvironment for industrial partners. The Detector Laboratory of DTBS exploits the detectorperformances using dedicated electronic and original methods of information processing. With thehelp of detector and system simulation, it enables to propose new system architectures.
Welcome to the OMA network!
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OMA Steering Committee meets at GSIThe second meeting of the OMA SC tookplace on August 1st, 2016 at GSI inDarmstadt, Germany. It gatheredrepresentatives of CNAO, IBA, GSI andUniversity of Liverpool. Chaired by the ProjectCoordinator Prof Carsten Welsch the meetingaimed at reviewing activities since lastmeeting and plan next project actions andevents. Project Manager MagdaKlimontowska gave a brief overview ofrecruitment results and presentedinformation on the fellows recruited. Thecommunication activities from the last sixmonths were also summarised and discussed.Later in the day a brainstorming discussion onnext year activities and events took place,resulting in detailed plans for two OMA
schools that will be hosted next year at theUniversity of Liverpool (OMA ComplementarySkills School) and at CNAO (OMA School onMedical Accelerators) and initial ideas for theOMA School on Monte Carlo Simulations, tobe organized later in 2017. Opportunities forcollaborations with other ITNs were alsodiscussed and received positive feedbackfrom all the SC members who see this as animportant added value for the project. At theend of the meeting next steps forcommunication were agreed, with strongemphasis of all partners contributing to thisaspect of the project.
Many thanks to Christian Graeff and theteam at GSI for kindly hosting the meeting!
Steering Committee Members at GSI
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OMA Complementary Skills School3 - 7 April 2017, University of Liverpool, UK
Why do you need complementary skills?A good set of complementary skills will helpyou gain the greatest impact from anytechnical or scientific knowledge you mayhave. Complementary skills will help youmanage your research project and presentyour results to different audiences, and inlonger term also make you more attractive toemployers in the competitive jobs arena.These skills are transferable and so make youmore robust and flexible. They could help youtake advantage of cross-sector opportunitiesbetween industry and academia or to workbetter at an interdisciplinary level. This is thereason why EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions incorporate mandatorycomplementary skills training in theirprojects.This training is implemented in OMA throughan established quality programme ofcomplementary skills training developed andtested during the delivery of three otherEuropean networks coordinated from theUniversity of Liverpool. This programme hasbeen recognised as best practice by several
institutions including European Commission.The training will be organized around thefollowing topics:
• Project management• Presentation skills• Scientific writing• Peer review• Team work• Time management
The school will be organized in the vibrantcity of Liverpool which will provide anexceptional atmosphere for the firstgathering of OMA Fellows.
Note that the UK is not within the Schengenarea and so non-EU nationals working outsideof the UK will need to apply for a UK visa inaddition to their work permits. Please submityour visa application well in advance. If aninvitation letter is required for visa applicationplease ask OMA Project Manager MagdaKlimontowska to provide you with it.
Upcoming OMA Events
1st OMA School - Medical Accelerators5 -9 June 2017, Fondazione CNAO, Pavia, Italy
The first OMA technical school will focus onthe principles of medical accelerators. Thiswill include beam generation, transport anddelivery to the patient, as well as treatmentschemes, beam extraction and clinicalassessment of effectiveness. Currentchallenges related to beam diagnostics,imaging and patient issues will also becovered.The lectures will be complemented by studysessions and a poster session where theparticipants will be given the opportunity to
present their own research activities in a formof a poster. There will also be a dedicatedindustry session.Within the school the OMA Scientific Boardannual meeting and the OMA SteeringCommittee meeting will take place.
The week following the OMA school there willbe an opportunity for OMA Fellows to attenda school of another European trainingnetwork ‘Medicis - Promed’, which will covermedical aspects of hadron therapy.
Note: Participation in OMA Schools is obligatory for all OMA Fellows.
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Multimillion euros project on antimatter research
announced
AVA (Accelerators Validating Antimatterphysics) is a new European research andtraining network between universities,research centres and industry. Within theproject a cohort of 15 Fellows will beemployed to carry out cutting edge researchand follow a highly innovative trainingprogram. The project was selected forfunding in one of the European Union’s mostcompetitive funding schemes and will benefitfrom almost 4 M€ of funding over its 4-yearduration. AVA targets new scientific andtechnical developments in antimatterresearch and aims at boosting the careerprospects of its Fellows.The project will be coordinated by OMACoordinator Prof Carsten P. Welsch and willdirectly build up on experience and expertisegained within earlier European networksincluding OMA and train the next generationof researchers.Within AVA, the project partners will pursue aclosely connected R&D program across threescientific work packages. The first one focuses
on facility design and optimization,addressing beam life time and stability issuesin lowest energy storage rings, as well asbeam cooling, deceleration and extractionprocesses. Work package 2 addresses thedesign, development and testing of novelbeam diagnostics and in particular theestablishment of a dedicated instrumentationand detector test stand, to fully determinethe characteristics of an antiproton beam.Finally, novel low energy antimatterexperiments will be carried out throughinvolving beyond state-of-the-art beamhandling, storing and analysis techniques.A structured combination of local andnetwork-wide trainings will also be offeredwithin AVA. This will follow the example ofthe OMA project and include courses at thedifferent host institutions, alongside network-wide trainings which will be made available tothe wider scientific community. There willalso be opportunities to organize joint eventsand training for both OMA and AVA fellows.
Currently AVA is offering 15 Fellowships totalented, energetic, highly motivated earlycareer researchers that will be employed bythe different project partners across Europe.The application deadline is 31st January2017.
More information about the project can befound on the project home page:http://www.ava-project.eu
Partner News
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 721559.
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OMA partners lead session at the Europe’s largest
higher education conferenceMore than 5,000 higher educationprofessionals from all corners of the worldhave participated in the 28th EuropeanAssociation for International Education’s(EAIE) annual conference held in Liverpool,13th – 16th September.
OMA project manager Magda Klimontowskaand Michael Holroyd, managing director ofInventya Limited (OMA partner institution)led the 'Accelerator Researcher Career’session at Europe’s largest higher education
conference. They were joined by James Hunt,PhD student from the University of Liverpool,to explore the conflict between the standardtraining received by postgraduate studentsand the demands of the technology industryfor highly qualified researchers.In the session chaired by James Hunt, MichaelHolroyd presented the specific industry needsand expectations in terms of highly qualifiedgraduates and Magda Klimontowskaresponded to this with an overview of thepostgraduate training model developedwithin several international training networksthat have been initiated and coordinated byProf Carsten P. Welsch from the University ofLiverpool. These presentations were followedby a set of questions from the audience.
Since 2008, Prof Welsch with support fromhis EU T.E.A.M., has coordinated four EU-funded Innovative Training Networks in thefield of particle accelerators, with a fifth oneto start in 2017. OMA – Optimization ofMedical Accelerators is one of them. Thesuccessful model developed over the yearsincludes international training events, cross-sector secondments, and complementaryskills training, as well as various outreachactivities. As a result, a steady supply of highlyqualified researchers has been provided tothe international community of particleaccelerator experts. The projects have alsohelped raise public awareness of theimportance of accelerators for science insociety.
OMA Events
April 3rd – 7th 2017 OMA Complementary Skills School, Liverpool, UK
June 5th – 9th 2017 1st OMA School – Medical Accelerators
Other Events
Oct 24th – 25th 2016 LA3NET Topical Workshop on Laser Ion Sources, Paris, France
Oct 24th – 26th 2016 LA3NET Topical Workshop on Novel Accelerators, Paris, France
Oct 25th – 28th 2016 PCaPAC 2016, Campinas, Brazil
May 14th – 19th 2017 IPAC’17, Copenhagen, Denmark
Aug 12st – 25th 2017 IBIC’17, Grand Rapids, MI, USA
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 675265.
Project CoordinatorProf. Carsten P. Welsch
Newsletter EditorAlexandra Welsch
Project ManagerMagdalena Klimontowska
NOTICE BOARD
There are now only two Fellowships available within OMA. Please encourage suitable candidates to apply.
This newsletter will be published on a quarterly basis. Help us keep it interesting by providing your news and updates.
DEADLINE FOR THE NEXT NEWSLETTER CONTRIBUTIONS 10th January 2017
www.oma-project.eu