Author: Brian Pogue

Petr Bruza, Research Scientist at Dartmouth, presented his work at the AAPM Annual Meeting in Denver CO, July 30, 2017.  His work was awarded 'Best in Physics' designation for the Imaging Physics.  The ePoster presentation was titled "3D Cherenkov Sheet Molecular Imaging provides 100 micron whole body spatial resolution".  

Thayer & Geisel researchers are excited to have won a four year NIBIB R01 grant entitled “Optical Cherenkov Calibration for Human Radiation Therapy” that builds upon a fundamental technological discovery made at Dartmouth, and patented for translation.

Students in the Medical Physics Program at Dartmouth have used optical imaging of Cherenkov emissions to map the radiation dose delivered to tissue. This the first time ever that radiation dose delivered to tissue has been directly imaged with high spatial and temporal resolution.  Their approach represents a complete paradigm change in how radiation therapy is documented and archived for both real time control and quality audits.

Professor Pogue remarked, “From a practical standpoint, using optical technology to image Cherenkov emissions is significantly simpler than most dosimetry tools currently available to clinicians. The challenge is to advance the quantitative accuracy in order to be competitive in documenting the dose delivered to tissue.  That is what this funding will allow to be developed.”

The team is actively looking to recruit PhD students and post doctoral researchers in Medical Physics or Electrical Engineering to work on this project, and expects to use this funding to support this work over the next 4 years.

The Dartmouth Medical Physics Graduate program received CAMPEP accreditation in the summer of 2016, after applying for this during the 2015/16 academic year.  A site visit in spring, and a committee vote at the AAPM meeting supported the proposed existing program.  The Dartmouth program is now the 2nd accredited PhD program in Medical Physics in all of New England.  A listing of all accredited programs is available online.

Recent graduate Adam Glaser won the Charles F. & Ruth D. Goodrich Prize for high academic achievement at the Thayer School of Engineering 2015 Investiture.

PhD student Jacqueline Andreozzi recently won 1st place in the AAPM's Young Investigator Award at the Annual Meeting in Anaheim CA, July 2015.

Recent graduate Rongxiao Zhang PhD, joined the Harvard Medical Physics Residency program after completing his course work and thesis on Cerenkov imaging of radiotherapy.