Institute of Medical Physics

Using physics to solve some of society’s biggest challenges

Our research is highly multidisciplinary and involves the application of fundamental physics to challenging problems in medicine and biology.

Our aims

We draw together research and teaching expertise across the University and its affiliated hospitals and research institutes.

Key aspects of our research include:

the application of radiation dosimetry and radiobiology to cancer treatment
the development, application and quantitative analysis of novel imaging techniques for diagnosing human disease
the application of biological physics concepts to better understand living matter.

Graduate programs

Students wishing to study medical physics with us may undertake either a coursework program towards the award of a Master of Medical Physics degree or a Graduate Diploma in Medical Physics, or a research program towards the award of a Doctor of Philosophy or a Master of Science.

Our people

Key staff

Professor Annette Haworth	Research interests:  Clinical implementation of functional imaging and radiobiological models in treatment planning and post implant evaluation in brachytherapy. Prostate Cancer: use of advanced technology treatment options including IGRT, EBRT, brachytherapy (LDR & HDR) Clinical trials: physics involvement in design and QA in clinical trials that may impact on clinical trial outcomes, introducing new technology through clinical trials. Correlation of dosimetry parameters with clinical outcomes.
Professor David Thwaites	Research interests:  radiation oncology physics; radiation dosimetry; radiation protection; imaging in oncology; image-guided radiotherapy;advanced radiation oncology technology and techniques; accuracy and precision in radiotherapy; audit and credentialing in radiation oncology trials and clinical practice; datamining in radiation oncology; health technology assessment and evaluation.
Professor Zdenka Kuncic	Research interests:  Biomedical devices, medical imaging, radiation biophysics, nanotechnology in medicine, neurotechnology.
Dr Samuel Blake	Research interests:   biomedical physics; computational modelling; Monte Carlo methods;  radiation dosimetry;  quantitative medical imaging;  development and optimisation of radiation detectors for applications in cancer radiotherapy.
Dr Yu Sun	Research interests: Applying traditional machine learning and deep learning methods on medical imaging data to correlate with underlying biological properties.
Dr Sianne Oktaria	Research interests: radiation applied to biology (cancer);  novel therapeutic strategies for improving the efficacy of radiation therapy;  design and development of bio-functional materials for targeted cancer therapies.
Dr Hilary Byrne	Research interests: Monte Carlo simulation, particularly subcellular radiation damage;  radiation biophysics; nanodosimetry; nanoparticle radiosensitisation;  theranostics
Dr Yaser Gholami	Research interests: Nanomedicine; Nanoparticle radiolabelling; Radionuclide therapy and imaging; Radiation physics and biology, Nuclear chemistry; Monte Carlo simulation
Dr David Waddington	Research interests: Theranostics Nanoparticle tracking with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) Hyperpolarized MRI Ultra-low field MRI

Affiliated staff

Honorary title holders

Professor Dale Bailey	Research interests: development of quantitative techniques using imaging of in vivo radionuclide tracers in both SPECT and PET; inernal radionuclide dosimetry
Dr Phil Vial	Research interests:  clinical dosimetry in radiotherapy; image guided radiotherapy
Dr Jeremy Booth	Research interests:  image guided radiotherapy
Dr Lois Holloway	Research interests:  radiobiology; CT; clinical radiotherapy
Dr Robin Hill	Research interests:  radiation dosimetry and treatment planning for low energy x-ray beams; Monte Carlo modelling of radiotherapy beams
Professor Roger Fulton	Research interests: medical imaging physics; motion tracking; motion-corrected imaging
Professor Yves de Deene	Research interests:  quantitative MRI; hyperpolarized MRI; MR elastography; NMR spectroscopy; 3D dosimetry
Dr Joerg Lehmann	Research interests: radiation therapy data mining and models; image guided radiation therapy (IGRT); audits for radiation therapy; dosimetry of ionizing radiation (MV and kV)
Dr Helen Gustafsson	Research interests:   radiotherapy gel dosimetry
Dr Lyn Oliver AM	Research interests: radiation dosimetry; imaging and new technologies applied in radiotherapy; radiation protection
Dr Martin Butson	Research interests:
Dr Nicholas Hardcastle	Research interests:  imaging in radiotherapy; stereotactic body radiotherapy
Dr Jonathan Sykes	Research interests:  radiation oncology physics; imaging in oncology; image guided radiotherapy; image segmentation and registration
Dr Kathy Willowson	Research interests: quantitative imaging of radionuclide tracers in both SPECT and PET; internal radionuclide dosimetry; theranostics

Affiliates

Dr Jason Dowling	Research interests:  clinical imaging; MRI alone radiation therapy planning; MRI guided radiation therapy
Paul Keall	Research interests:  focused on making radiotherapy treatment more effective and accessible
Steve Meikle	Research interests: Leader of the Physics and Biomodelling team.

Research students

Thahabah Alharthi	PhD candidate	Research project:  Assessment of linear accelerator delivery uncertainties associated with a novel MRI linac system
Jeffrey Barber	PhD candidate	Research project:  Optimising the use of image guidance information
Elizabeth Claridge Mackonis	PhD Candidate	Research project: A Framework for the Safe and Effective Implementation of New Technology for Radiation Oncology
Jason Cheng	PhD candidate	Research project:  Developing a plastic scintillator fibre array for megavoltage imaging and therapy
Gwi-ae Cho	PhD candidate	Research project:  Tumor response modelling using biological imaging data
Jacek Chojnowski	PhD candidate	Research project:  Novel methods for performance assessment of medical linear accelarators for advanced radiotherapy techniques
Robert Finnegan	PhD candidate	Research project:  Deformable Image Registration for Multi-Modality Image-Based Radiotherapy Treatment Planning and Verification
Emily Flower	PhD candidate	Research project:  Implementing Advanced Imaging including deformable image registration for image guide adaptive radiation therapy
Takanori Hioki	PhD candidate	Research project: Towards a personalised theranostics platform through an improved understanding of the biological effects of radionuclide therapy
Richard Maschmeyer	PhD candidate	Research project:  A novel radio-nanomedicine platform for hybrid PET-MRI
Alison Salkeld	PhD candidate	Research project:  Optimising the treatment of brain metastases
Tarafder Shameem	PhD candidate	Research project:  The problem and solution of Radiochromic film analysis process
Tony Young	PhD candidate	Research project: MRI in Radiotherapy
Yu Feng Wang	PhD candidate	Research project:  Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography for the prediction of radiation therapy treatment outcome in prostate cancer
Laura Adamson	Master of Philosophy (Science) candidate	Research project:  Root cause analysis of near misses in Radiation Therapy: When is education and/or process change needed?
Harry Marquis	PhD candidate	Research project: Development of a Dosimetry Platform for Theranostic Agents
Owen Vandenberg	PhD candidate	Research Project: Development of a prostate biological atlas to facilitate personalised prostate cancer radiotherapy using augmented intelligence

Research Student (Master) 2019

Sharon Gordon	Project title: Objective Biomarkers for Radiation Dosimetry using Blood Borne Micro-particles: A Feasibility Study.
John Holik	Project title: Atlas based auto segmentation of organs at risk in head and neck cancer: evaluation of clinical performance of MIM Maestro
Tuyet Oanh Lam	Project title: Evaluation of image-based Lu-177 octreotate dosimetry using simulated imaging.
Terry Perkins	Project title: Imaging Respiratory-induced Tumour Motion using 4D-MRI for Lung Cancers.
Isabelle Smith	Project title: Investigation of the Quantitative Performance of a PET Insert for a Preclinical MRI
Rowan Thomas	Project title: Reconstruction of delivered dose for MLC tracking lung SABR
Marie Vozzo	Project title:  Use of deformable image registration techniques to estimate dose to organs at risk following prostate EBRT and HDR

Research students 2018

Rene Buxton	Project title: An investigation into the auotomated detection of BACE1 protein in fluorescent-labelled cells
Alice Caldwell	Project title: Measurement of radiation dose rates from patients that have had Thyrogen prior to receiving iodine-131 therapy
Izabela Domanski	Project title:  Evaluation of optically stimulated luminescent dosimeters fading effects and uncertainties for clinical radiotherapy applications
Kerwyn Foo
Oliver Fuller	Project title: Investigation of convolution neural networks for model selection in PET studies of neurotransmitter activation
Te-An Huang	Project title: Further enhancement and evaluation of picoDot, optically stimulated dosimeters for small field dosimetry
Shariful Islam	Project title: Evaluating delivery of partial-IMRT plans to free-breathing breast treatments
Praise Lim	Project title: Investigating the potential for dual energy CT in radiation therapy
Harry Marquis	Project title: Comparison of various voxel dosimetry calculation methods for Cu-67 quantitative SPECT
Monika Mikhail	Project title: Density corrected whole body PET scanning
Kehuan Shi	Project title: A study on the use of TOPAS Monte Carlo code for electron beam radiotherapy
Sadia Aftab	Project title: Dosimetric effect of the metallic drive rail in the SNC 3D scanner water tank