Topic: Introduction into QM system

Date: April, 12th

This training delivered by IBA Dosimetry was about company Quality Management. Topics:

• standard basics
• legal foundations
• explanation of quality politics
• norms and standards
• process and product certificates

Topic: GAMMATRON & LINAC trainings

Date: April, 24th & June, 25th

• use of GAMMATRON radiation facilitiy (IBA Dosimetry), a Co60 source of about 85TBq activity. In my experimental activity I often use GAMMATRON for preliminary stability tests on IC detector. Training delivered by DoseLab staff at IBA Dosimetry.
• use (service mode) of LINAC radiation facilitiy (IBA Dosimetry).LINAC facility allows me to perform tests with MV X-ray beams as in usual clinical radiation treatment conditions. The training was delivered by Arianna Giuliacci (Physics & Innovation Group - IBA Dosimetry).

Below, trying to unlock the Gammatron gantry...Come on! I have to measure!

Topic: EGSnrc Monte Carlo training @ IBA

Date: May, 13th

This was an introductory training about use of EGSnrc Monte Carlo code, useful to simulate photon and electron transport through matter.

Training delivered by Mattias Birkner at IBA Dosimetry.

Topic: Absolute dosimetry training

Date: May, 22th

absolute dosimetry is a technique that yields information directly on absorbed dose in Gy at a well defined reference point. I learned about how to perform beam calibration with reference techniques, i.e. calorimetry, Fricke dosimetry and ionization chamber dosimetry.

General features and characteristics of a reference dosimeter were also introduced, together with the codes of practice (dosimetry protocols, e.g. IAEA TRS 398) used to perform beam calibration in terms of absorbed dose to water. In a following experimental session I performed dose to water measurement in both high energy photon beams and high energy electron beams at the IBA Dosimetry DoseLab, which is a Second Standard Dosimetry Laboratory.

The training was delivered by Arianna Giuliacci (Physics & Innovation Group - IBA Dosimetry).

Venue: Legnaro National Laboratories, INFN - Italy

This intensive five-days school was focused on detectors and electronics aimed to high energy physics, astrophysics, space applications and medical physics. Main topics:

• radiation damage: microscopic and macroscopic damage in silicon detectors
• single-event effects: radiation damage in front-end electronics and electronic devices
• INFN (National Institute of Nuclear Physics) projects in Medical Physics
• adrotherapy: what is CNAO, applications of ions beams in cancer treatment

A very interesting tour of the Laboratories was arranged at the beginning of the school, visiting CN (Van de Graaff accelerator) and TANDEM-ALPI (VdG + Linear superconductive accelerator)

German language course A1.1 attended at Nurnberg Volkshochschule

wie Sie dieses Logbook lesen, ich wunche Ihnen viel Spass!!

Venue: CERN

Preparatory meeting in view of the ARDENT annual meeting. Other ESRs an me joined the visit to the ATLAS detector (thanks to Stuart who arranged that!) and to Synchro-Cyclotron building.

Evening light wraps around the Globe of Science and Innovation...

Measurements with MV X-rays and Co60

Improvements on device tested under MV X-rays beams (Linac facility) and under Co60-gamma beams (Gammatron radiation unit, activity 85.5TBq updated 08.10.2013)

Further research activity

Trying to develop a compact instrumentation for single pulse dose measurements

Topic: Company IQ training

Training delivered by the company, focused on programs and methods for problem solving, process improvement and quality enhancement.

Venue: Vicenza - Italy

Simulations with EGSnrc Monte Carlo code are important in detector development processes, giving useful indications about materials,geometries and physics involved.

I spent a week in Vicenza at the Department of Medical Physics of S.Bortolo Hospital. I worked with prof. Paolo Francescon on possible methods to simulate the behavior of detector Prototype II under high energy photon radiation beams. It was a really helpful experience.

Monte Carlo simulations

Investigation of detector behavior through Monte Carlo simulation.

Great news from work...

Design of detector upgraded version is now completed! Parts production completion foreseen for the end of September.

Venue: Milano - Italy

Back to Milan! Back to my university! The meeting took place at Politecnico of Milano where I got my MSc degree in Nuclear Engineering. POLIMI celebrates its 150th anniversary this year!

ESRs, supervisors, EU Project Officier, we met all together to chek the work carried out so far and to plan the work for the future. Extremely interesting sessions (both practical and theoretical) on micro- and nanodosimetry were also delivered by experts.

Below two pictures taken during the outreach event organized at POLIMI.

Topic: Basic clinical training

This training was an overview on radiation therapy, clinical dosimetry workflow and processes such as daily and monthly QA. It was provided by an external medical physicist at IBA Dosimetry.

Venue: Seoul - South korea

IEEE NSS&MIC is an international scientific conference on nuclear science, high energy physics and astrophysics, radiation detection and medical imaging. For more information you can visit the website of the conference.

A different country, different culture, different traditions...a couple of days of holidays would be perfect to have a taste of this fascinating world! Look at these pictures taken in Seoul and Busan.

Prototype II characterization

The new detector prototype is now ready for characterization. Measurements campaigns both under cobalt and MV X-ray beams were carried out in order to evaluate dosimetric performances of the detector.

First results are very promising: no explosions happened! All kidding aside, the detector has excellent performances and we are confident in further future good results.

Back to my hometown, it's time for skiing!

Prototype II characterization - further measurements

Venue: IBA Dosimetry, Schwarzenbruck & Proton Therapy Center Czech s.r.o., Prague

In the picture below, the detector (inside the plastic phantom) is going to be irradited under MV X-ray beam for dosimetric characterizations...

...whereas in this other picture the detector is placed on the couch in a Proton Therapy Center treatment room.

Prototype II characterization - further investigations

Simulations of the electrical field inside our detector using a software which allow to solve differential equation with defined boundary conditions.

Topic: Clinical workflow in SBRT radiotherapy treatments

Venue: Klinikum Recht der Isaar, Munich

This was an one-day training about how stereotactic treatments are performed in clinics nowadays. Physicists from the clinic introduced the concept of SBRT, explaining which are the features of this advanced radiotherapy technique and the tecnical issues involved. Then, I had the chance to attend a practical demonstration of SBRT patient QA.

Venue: Technical University Munich

As PhD activity, I tutored the 1st year students of Mechanical Engineering (Tecnical University of Munich) during a 6-days laboratory course. These activities were focused on fundamentals of magnetism and some pratical applications. Students had also to perform a set of experimental measurements, dealing with basic problems an experimental physicist usually faces.

Hope I was a good teacher, or at least not bad...if you want to refresh your knowledge of the very basic laws of magnetism, here you can find a short summary!!

The abstract submitted to the AAPM conference has been accepted for the general poster session. Title of the abstract: An ionization chamber array with high spatial resolution for external beam radiotherapy.

See you in Austin (TX) then...

Topic: Clinical training and characterization of ion chamber detector in clinical conditions

Venue: Klinikum Rechts der Isaar, Munich

I had the opportunity to spend two weeks working together with the physicists of the clinic. Here I summarized the main topics on which I've been trained:

• delivery of conventional (3D conformal) and advanced (IMRT/VMAT, stereotactic, Tomotherapy) radiotherapy techniques
• machine quality assurance
• patient quality assurance
• radiotherapy treatments planning
• general activities carried out by a medical physicist in clinical workflow

During my secondments, I had the chance to test the ion chamber detector with clinical radiotherapy beams and to compare it with the reference devices which are used in daily activities by physicists. A more detailed description of this measurements campaign is reported in the Experiments page of the ARDENT website.

Topic: Business and Administration training

Venue: CERN, Geneva

One week training course focused on technology transfer, project management and entrepreneurship. For more info, go to the Workshop page of the ARDENT website.

Venue: Austin (TX) - USA

The conference was focused on the latest research in the physics of medical imaging and radiation therapy, including a major focus on the increasing integration on advanced imaging technologies in the guidance of medical therapeutics.

Here you can find the abstract of the poster I presented at the Therapy General Poster Discussion.

Topic: Clinical training and characterization of ion chamber detector in clinical conditions

Venue: UCSF, Department of Radiation Oncology, San Francisco (CA)

I had the opportunity to spend two weeks working together with the physicists of the clinic. Here I summarized the main topics on which I've been trained:

• use of Pinnacle treatment planning system
• dosimetric measurements with gafchromic films
• machine and patient QA
• introduction to Cyberknife radiation treatment technique
• general activities carried out by a medical physicist in clinical workflow

During my secondments, I performed several test with the 1D ion-chamber array under X-Ray beams generated by a Varian TrueBeam facility. Comparisons were done with reference detectors such as EBT2 GFC, an a:Si detector, ion-chambers in a water phantom. A paper on this activity will be ready soon..

Venue: Technical University Munich

As a PhD activity, I teached the 1st year students from Mechanical Engineering (Tecnical University of Munich) during a 6-days laboratory course. These activities were focused on fundamentals of magnetism and some pratical applications.

USA west coast! More than 5000km on the road, amazing parks, cool cities, a lot of fun!

Venue: Schwarzenbruck - Germany

The Workshop took place at IBA Dosimetry. All the ESRs presented the work performed over the last year. A two-days training course on Quality Assurance in Therapy and Diagnostics and on Semiconductor Detectors was part of the workshop.

Here you can find more informations about the workshop and some pictures as well!.

The abstract submitted to the ESTRO conference has been accepted for the Young Scientist Program poster session. Title of the abstract: Clinical evaluation of an innovative ionization chamber technology for patient quality assurance.

See you in Barcelona then...

The design of the new detector prototype has been finalized and the parts production has been started already!.

Back to Italy, having some fun on the snow!

Topic: Business & Administration

Venue: STMicroelectronics, R&D Financial Office, Catania - Italy

I spent two weeks together with my colleague (and ESR as well) Francesca in the R&D department of STM. Here I summarized the main topics on which we have been trained:

• Program management
• Business strategy
• Funded programs
• Intellectual property
• Technical lectures on silicon based devices

During the secondments, we also had the opportunity to visit the facilities of the company such as the clean rooms where the silicon devices are produced

Prototype II characterization - further measurements with clinical proton beams

Venue: Proton Therapy Center Czech s.r.o., Prague

In the picture below: let's try to get a Bragg peak profile with only one shot in PBS mode...

Venue: Technical University Munich

As a PhD activity, I teached the 1st year students from Mechanical Engineering (Tecnical University of Munich) during a 6-days laboratory course. These activities were focused on fundamentals of magnetism and some pratical applications.

Venue: Barcelona - Spain

The Physics Biennial Meeting which was held at the ESTRO conference covered many medical physics domains. Here are some of topics covered: MRI, 4D imaging and delivery, functional imaging, nano-dosimetry, small fields, recent detectors, hypo-fractionation and SBRT, side effects, secondary cancers, uncertainties, high technologies, MC, adaptive treatments.

I had the chance to present a poster at the Young Scientist poster session. You can find it here.

Here there is a summary of the most interesting lectures I have attended.

Venue: San Diego (CA) - USA

I attended both the educational and the scientific conference sessions. The Educational Session provided a comprehensive overview of the clinical, physical, technological, and radiobiological fundamentals of particle beam therapy with an emphasis on the latest advances in the field. The Scientific Meeting focused on advances in IMPT and carbon, robustness in treatment planning, quantifying and managing the uncertainty in range and tumor motion, incorporating 3-D imaging with daily delivery, and various other topics.

I had the chance to present a poster at conference. You can find it here.

And of course, few pictures of the amazing San Diego...

The new detector prototype is nearly ready! Completion of the assembling procedure is foreseen for the end of June.

Looking forward to testing this guy...

Topics:

• Introduction into working safety
• Radiation safety
• Relative dosimetry
• TERABAL training

Date: February, 7th

Principles of working safety according to German health and and safety protection law. Instruction on behavior in the event of an emergency.

Training delivered by IBA Dosimetry.

Date: February, 20th

Interesting lessons about radiation protection. Covered topics:

• general introduction to radiation: types and sources
• biological effects of ionization radiation
• international standards and safety rules application

Training delivered by IBA Dosimetry.

Date: February, 27th

Relative dosimetry is a technique where the measurement of the dose in arbitrary units is performed with a (un)calibrated dosimeter relative to a known point dose in reference conditions.

The training was organized in two different sessions. The first concerned some theoretical lectures about dosimetry in radiation therapy. After a brief overview on general goals in radiation therapy, the most important parameters used in beams QA were introduced.

In the second part I learned how to perform measurements of PDD, Linac output factors and beam profiling. An experimetal session was carried out at the MV radiation facility (IBA Dosimetry) - see pics below.

The training was delivered by Arianna Giuliacci (Physics & Innovation Group - IBA Dosimetry).

Date: March, 11th

The training was about the use of TERABAL radiation facilitiy (IBA Dosimetry), a Co60 source of about 250TBq activity. It was necessary to be allowed to independently perform experimental activity.

Training delivered by DoseLab staff at IBA Dosimetry.

Preliminary measurements with Terabal

Series of measurements performed under gamma beam (Co60) in order to evaluate dosimetric performances of simple prototypes already produced by IBA.

Below a pic of Terabalt radiation unit, activity 249.1TBq (updated 08.10.2013)

New city, the same weather...Nurnberg under snow (24.02.2013). I feel at home.

Topic: Introduction into QM system

Date: April, 12th

This training delivered by IBA Dosimetry was about company Quality Management. Topics:

• standard basics
• legal foundations
• explanation of quality politics
• norms and standards
• process and product certificates

Topic: GAMMATRON & LINAC trainings

Date: April, 24th & June, 25th

• use of GAMMATRON radiation facilitiy (IBA Dosimetry), a Co60 source of about 85TBq activity. In my experimental activity I often use GAMMATRON for preliminary stability tests on IC detector. Training delivered by DoseLab staff at IBA Dosimetry.
• use (service mode) of LINAC radiation facilitiy (IBA Dosimetry).LINAC facility allows me to perform tests with MV X-ray beams as in usual clinical radiation treatment conditions. The training was delivered by Arianna Giuliacci (Physics & Innovation Group - IBA Dosimetry).

Below, trying to unlock the Gammatron gantry...Come on! I have to measure!

Topic: EGSnrc Monte Carlo training @ IBA

Date: May, 13th

This was an introductory training about use of EGSnrc Monte Carlo code, useful to simulate photon and electron transport through matter.

Training delivered by Mattias Birkner at IBA Dosimetry.

Topic: Absolute dosimetry training

Date: May, 22th

absolute dosimetry is a technique that yields information directly on absorbed dose in Gy at a well defined reference point. I learned about how to perform beam calibration with reference techniques, i.e. calorimetry, Fricke dosimetry and ionization chamber dosimetry.

General features and characteristics of a reference dosimeter were also introduced, together with the codes of practice (dosimetry protocols, e.g. IAEA TRS 398) used to perform beam calibration in terms of absorbed dose to water. In a following experimental session I performed dose to water measurement in both high energy photon beams and high energy electron beams at the IBA Dosimetry DoseLab, which is a Second Standard Dosimetry Laboratory.

The training was delivered by Arianna Giuliacci (Physics & Innovation Group - IBA Dosimetry).

Venue: Legnaro National Laboratories, INFN - Italy

This intensive five-days school was focused on detectors and electronics aimed to high energy physics, astrophysics, space applications and medical physics. Main topics:

• radiation damage: microscopic and macroscopic damage in silicon detectors
• single-event effects: radiation damage in front-end electronics and electronic devices
• INFN (National Institute of Nuclear Physics) projects in Medical Physics
• adrotherapy: what is CNAO, applications of ions beams in cancer treatment

A very interesting tour of the Laboratories was arranged at the beginning of the school, visiting CN (Van de Graaff accelerator) and TANDEM-ALPI (VdG + Linear superconductive accelerator)

German language course A1.1 attended at Nurnberg Volkshochschule

wie Sie dieses Logbook lesen, ich wunche Ihnen viel Spass!!

Venue: CERN

Preparatory meeting in view of the ARDENT annual meeting. Other ESRs an me joined the visit to the ATLAS detector (thanks to Stuart who arranged that!) and to Synchro-Cyclotron building.

Evening light wraps around the Globe of Science and Innovation...

Measurements with MV X-rays and Co60

Improvements on device tested under MV X-rays beams (Linac facility) and under Co60-gamma beams (Gammatron radiation unit, activity 85.5TBq updated 08.10.2013)

Further research activity

Trying to develop a compact instrumentation for single pulse dose measurements

Topic: Company IQ training

Training delivered by the company, focused on programs and methods for problem solving, process improvement and quality enhancement.

Venue: Vicenza - Italy

Simulations with EGSnrc Monte Carlo code are important in detector development processes, giving useful indications about materials,geometries and physics involved.

I spent a week in Vicenza at the Department of Medical Physics of S.Bortolo Hospital. I worked with prof. Paolo Francescon on possible methods to simulate the behavior of detector Prototype II under high energy photon radiation beams. It was a really helpful experience.

Monte Carlo simulations

Investigation of detector behavior through Monte Carlo simulation.

Great news from work...

Design of detector upgraded version is now completed! Parts production completion foreseen for the end of September.

Venue: Milano - Italy

Back to Milan! Back to my university! The meeting took place at Politecnico of Milano where I got my MSc degree in Nuclear Engineering. POLIMI celebrates its 150th anniversary this year!

ESRs, supervisors, EU Project Officier, we met all together to chek the work carried out so far and to plan the work for the future. Extremely interesting sessions (both practical and theoretical) on micro- and nanodosimetry were also delivered by experts.

Below two pictures taken during the outreach event organized at POLIMI.

Topic: Basic clinical training

This training was an overview on radiation therapy, clinical dosimetry workflow and processes such as daily and monthly QA. It was provided by an external medical physicist at IBA Dosimetry.

Venue: Seoul - South korea

IEEE NSS&MIC is an international scientific conference on nuclear science, high energy physics and astrophysics, radiation detection and medical imaging. For more information you can visit the website of the conference.

A different country, different culture, different traditions...a couple of days of holidays would be perfect to have a taste of this fascinating world! Look at these pictures taken in Seoul and Busan.

Prototype II characterization

The new detector prototype is now ready for characterization. Measurements campaigns both under cobalt and MV X-ray beams were carried out in order to evaluate dosimetric performances of the detector.

First results are very promising: no explosions happened! All kidding aside, the detector has excellent performances and we are confident in further future good results.

Back to my hometown, it's time for skiing!

Prototype II characterization - further measurements

Venue: IBA Dosimetry, Schwarzenbruck & Proton Therapy Center Czech s.r.o., Prague

In the picture below, the detector (inside the plastic phantom) is going to be irradited under MV X-ray beam for dosimetric characterizations...

...whereas in this other picture the detector is placed on the couch in a Proton Therapy Center treatment room.

Prototype II characterization - further investigations

Simulations of the electrical field inside our detector using a software which allow to solve differential equation with defined boundary conditions.

Topic: Clinical workflow in SBRT radiotherapy treatments

Venue: Klinikum Recht der Isaar, Munich

This was an one-day training about how stereotactic treatments are performed in clinics nowadays. Physicists from the clinic introduced the concept of SBRT, explaining which are the features of this advanced radiotherapy technique and the tecnical issues involved. Then, I had the chance to attend a practical demonstration of SBRT patient QA.

Venue: Technical University Munich

As PhD activity, I tutored the 1st year students of Mechanical Engineering (Tecnical University of Munich) during a 6-days laboratory course. These activities were focused on fundamentals of magnetism and some pratical applications. Students had also to perform a set of experimental measurements, dealing with basic problems an experimental physicist usually faces.

Hope I was a good teacher, or at least not bad...if you want to refresh your knowledge of the very basic laws of magnetism, here you can find a short summary!!

The abstract submitted to the AAPM conference has been accepted for the general poster session. Title of the abstract: An ionization chamber array with high spatial resolution for external beam radiotherapy.

See you in Austin (TX) then...

Topic: Clinical training and characterization of ion chamber detector in clinical conditions

Venue: Klinikum Rechts der Isaar, Munich

I had the opportunity to spend two weeks working together with the physicists of the clinic. Here I summarized the main topics on which I've been trained:

• delivery of conventional (3D conformal) and advanced (IMRT/VMAT, stereotactic, Tomotherapy) radiotherapy techniques
• machine quality assurance
• patient quality assurance
• radiotherapy treatments planning
• general activities carried out by a medical physicist in clinical workflow

During my secondments, I had the chance to test the ion chamber detector with clinical radiotherapy beams and to compare it with the reference devices which are used in daily activities by physicists. A more detailed description of this measurements campaign is reported in the Experiments page of the ARDENT website.

Topic: Business and Administration training

Venue: CERN, Geneva

One week training course focused on technology transfer, project management and entrepreneurship. For more info, go to the Workshop page of the ARDENT website.

Venue: Austin (TX) - USA

The conference was focused on the latest research in the physics of medical imaging and radiation therapy, including a major focus on the increasing integration on advanced imaging technologies in the guidance of medical therapeutics.

Here you can find the abstract of the poster I presented at the Therapy General Poster Discussion.

Topic: Clinical training and characterization of ion chamber detector in clinical conditions

Venue: UCSF, Department of Radiation Oncology, San Francisco (CA)

I had the opportunity to spend two weeks working together with the physicists of the clinic. Here I summarized the main topics on which I've been trained:

• use of Pinnacle treatment planning system
• dosimetric measurements with gafchromic films
• machine and patient QA
• introduction to Cyberknife radiation treatment technique
• general activities carried out by a medical physicist in clinical workflow

During my secondments, I performed several test with the 1D ion-chamber array under X-Ray beams generated by a Varian TrueBeam facility. Comparisons were done with reference detectors such as EBT2 GFC, an a:Si detector, ion-chambers in a water phantom. A paper on this activity will be ready soon..

Venue: Technical University Munich

As a PhD activity, I teached the 1st year students from Mechanical Engineering (Tecnical University of Munich) during a 6-days laboratory course. These activities were focused on fundamentals of magnetism and some pratical applications.

USA west coast! More than 5000km on the road, amazing parks, cool cities, a lot of fun!

Venue: Schwarzenbruck - Germany

The Workshop took place at IBA Dosimetry. All the ESRs presented the work performed over the last year. A two-days training course on Quality Assurance in Therapy and Diagnostics and on Semiconductor Detectors was part of the workshop.

Here you can find more informations about the workshop and some pictures as well!.

The abstract submitted to the ESTRO conference has been accepted for the Young Scientist Program poster session. Title of the abstract: Clinical evaluation of an innovative ionization chamber technology for patient quality assurance.

See you in Barcelona then...

The design of the new detector prototype has been finalized and the parts production has been started already!.

Back to Italy, having some fun on the snow!

Topic: Business & Administration

Venue: STMicroelectronics, R&D Financial Office, Catania - Italy

I spent two weeks together with my colleague (and ESR as well) Francesca in the R&D department of STM. Here I summarized the main topics on which we have been trained:

• Program management
• Business strategy
• Funded programs
• Intellectual property
• Technical lectures on silicon based devices

During the secondments, we also had the opportunity to visit the facilities of the company such as the clean rooms where the silicon devices are produced

Prototype II characterization - further measurements with clinical proton beams

Venue: Proton Therapy Center Czech s.r.o., Prague

In the picture below: let's try to get a Bragg peak profile with only one shot in PBS mode...

Venue: Technical University Munich

As a PhD activity, I teached the 1st year students from Mechanical Engineering (Tecnical University of Munich) during a 6-days laboratory course. These activities were focused on fundamentals of magnetism and some pratical applications.

Venue: Barcelona - Spain

The Physics Biennial Meeting which was held at the ESTRO conference covered many medical physics domains. Here are some of topics covered: MRI, 4D imaging and delivery, functional imaging, nano-dosimetry, small fields, recent detectors, hypo-fractionation and SBRT, side effects, secondary cancers, uncertainties, high technologies, MC, adaptive treatments.

I had the chance to present a poster at the Young Scientist poster session. You can find it here.

Here there is a summary of the most interesting lectures I have attended.

Venue: San Diego (CA) - USA

I attended both the educational and the scientific conference sessions. The Educational Session provided a comprehensive overview of the clinical, physical, technological, and radiobiological fundamentals of particle beam therapy with an emphasis on the latest advances in the field. The Scientific Meeting focused on advances in IMPT and carbon, robustness in treatment planning, quantifying and managing the uncertainty in range and tumor motion, incorporating 3-D imaging with daily delivery, and various other topics.

I had the chance to present a poster at conference. You can find it here.

And of course, few pictures of the amazing San Diego...

The new detector prototype is nearly ready! Completion of the assembling procedure is foreseen for the end of June.

Looking forward to testing this guy...