For the winners of past Awards, click on the year: 2018 2019 2020 2021
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Awards 2022
The Scientific Awards recognise Medical Physicists, Biomedical Engineers, and Radiopharmaceutical Scientists who have made outstanding achievements and contributions in advancing healthcare services and professional standards for the benefit and protection of the community.
Nominations for this year were received from the Awards Panel for the following Award categories;
Boyce Worthley ACPSEM Young Achiever Award;
ACPSEM PhD Award;
The Richard Bates ACPSEM Travel Award
The Kenneth Clarke ACPSEM Journal Award (decided by the Journal Editorial Board).
The Clinical Leadership ACPSEM Foundation Award (T/A Better Healthcare Technology Foundation Award and in honour of Vera Page-Last)
Dr Zoe Brady PhD, Chair, Awards Panel, ACPSEM Foundation Ltd
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BOYCE WORTHLEY YOUNG ACHIEVER AWARD
The Boyce Worthley Early Career Award recognises a younger member of the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine (ACPSEM, ‘The College‘) for a significant contribution to the profession of physical and engineering sciences in medicine. The 2022 Award was won by Dr Alexander Santos.
Dr Alexandre Santos
Young Achiever Award Winner 2022
The Boyce Worthley Early Career Award is to recognise a younger member of the College for a significant contribution to the profession of physical and engineering sciences in medicine. In 2022, the Award is presented to Dr Alexandre Santos. He received a PhD in 2016 for BeO ceramic fibre-coupled luminescence dosimetry and has been the coordinator for the medical physics program at the University of Adelaide since this time. He also works clinically within the Central Adelaide Local Health Network and the Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy and Research. Alex is actively involved in the supervision of research students, in fact too many to list, and has published 20 peer-reviewed journal articles in the last three years alone. He has one provisional patent and is often an invited speaker at national and international meetings. Alex has accrued substantial grant funding and collaborates with a number of research programs. He is involved in several ACPSEM groups including the SA/NT branch, the Particle Therapy Working Group and the ROMP Clinical Training Guide Expert Working Group on assessment. Alex is a passionate, committed professional and an excellent ambassador for the field.
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PhD AWARD
Dr Elette Engels
PhD Thesis Award Winner 2022
It is commendable to note that, in 2022, the majority of PhD Award nominations were for female nominees.
The prize money for the PhD Award is provided by Prof Tomas Kron to recognise the best PhD thesis in Physical and Engineering Sciences with relevance for medicine. The 2022 PhD Award goes to Dr Elette Engels. Her research focussed on brain cancer treatment using synchrotron modulated activation radiation therapy. One of the impressive features of her work was the way in which the project was tackled from several sides including in silico Monte-Carlo simulations, radiation dosimetry, nanoparticles production and characterisation, all the way to in vitro and in vivo experiments. Her work improved the long-term survival of rodents bearing 9L gliosarcoma. Her PhD was completed at the University of Wollongong and conferred in 2021. Elette has multiple publications, including five first-author papers, as a result of her PhD research.
An honourable mention for the 2022 PhD Award is given to Dr Emily Hewson. Her research enabled real-time adaptive radiotherapy for multiple targets, broadening the application of adaptive therapy to include patients with more advanced cancers. To date her work has produced four first-author publications along with several other papers. Emily undertook her work at the University of Sydney and her PhD was conferred in 2022.
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CLINICAL LEADERSHIP AWARD
Sandra Fisher
Clinical Leadership Award Winner 2022
2022 is the first year that the Clinical Leadership Award has been awarded. It is in honour of Vera Page Last to provide due recognition for the improvement of patient care within the bounds of economic, resource and social constraints. It recognises activities undertaken by medical physicists in clinical settings which substantially benefit patients. A high quality of applications has been received in relation to this Award.
The 2022 Clinical Leadership Award goes to Sandra Fisher for work undertaken at the Olivia Newton John Cancer and Wellness Centre (ONJCWC) at Austin Health. As Principal Medical Physicist, Sandra has led the clinical implementation, acceptance testing and commissioning of the newly established state-wide MRI service at the ONJCWC – a service centred around the installation of the first Elekta Unity MR Linac and dedicated Philips Ingenia MR Simulator in Victoria.
Since assuming the position, she has been an integral part of the multidisciplinary team, providing scientific and technical leadership in the introduction of the new technology demonstrating an unquestionable commitment to putting the patient, the service and the wider team first. Despite the challenges of COVID, Sandra pivoted to new methods of working and communicating to ensure the novel technology was implemented safely, effectively and efficiently prior to its clinical release. This included having only virtual vendor guidance during installation and commissioning due to Victorian border closures. The team at ONJCWC decided on an unconventional path for the clinical rollout of the new technology starting with brain, head and neck, and breast treatments. These were first in country treatments involving significant inhouse development. Drawing on local and international clinical collaborations for implementation advice, Sandra’s contacts within industry and translating her previous experience with establishing new treatment techniques and introducing new technology into the new realm of MR-RT, she was able to guide the wider team through the challenges faced to establish a safe and effective treatment program. The centre has now successfully completed over 550 treatment fractions.
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RICHARD BATES TRAVEL AWARD
Dr Damion Stimson
Travel Award Winner 2022
The travel scholarship is awarded to assist a physical scientist or engineer to undertake a period of study or research project overseas. The 2022 Richard Bates Travel Award goes to radiopharmaceutical scientist Damion Stimson. He will undertake a period of study/training in the safe handling of alpha-emitting radiometals at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. The use of targeted radiometals such as Pb-212, Pb-203, and Ac-225 in the treatment of cancer is of growing interest nationally and internationally with limited local expertise in handling these materials. Damion will be trained in the safe handling of these cytotoxic radioactive materials. Facilitating the expansion of the safe use of these radiometals for pre-clinical research and for research in humans will advance innovations in medical physics and radiopharmaceutical science.
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DAVID ROBINSON INNOVATION Award
There were no applications received for the David Robinson Award in 2022
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KENNETH CLARKE JOURNAL AWARD
Effects of MR Imaging time reduction on substitute CT generation for prostate MRI-only treatment planning.
Phys Eng Sci Med. 2021 Sep;44(3):799-807. doi: 10.1007/s13246-021-01031-0. Epub 2021 Jul 6.
(The Official Journal of the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine)
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Congratulations to the Foundation 2022 Award Winners.
Sincerely,
Professor Dale Bailey BAppSc(Hons) MAppSc PhD FACPSEM FIPEM MRCP(Lond.) CSi(UK)
Board Chair, ACPSEM Foundation Ltd, 14 November 2022
and T/A
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For the winners of past Awards, click on the year: 2018 2019 2020 2021
2021 Award Winners
Nominations for this year were received for the Award categories;
Boyce Worthley Young Achiever Award;
PhD Award;
David Robinson Innovation Award; and
The Kenneth Clarke Journal Award (decided by the Journal Editorial Board).
The Richard Bates Travel Award
Unfortunately, due to the continued travel restrictions due to the COVID pandemic, the Richard Bates Travel prize could not be offered again this year.
BOYCE WORTHLEY YOUNG ACHIEVER AWARD
The Boyce Worthley Early Career Award is to recognise a younger member of the College for a significant contribution to the profession of physical and engineering sciences in medicine. In 2021, the Award has been jointly presented to Dr Michael Douglass and Dr Adam Yeo.
Dr Michael Douglass
Joint Young Achiever Award Winner 2021
Dr Michael Douglass is a certified radiation oncology medical physicist (ROMP) who completed the training, education and assessment program (TEAP) in 2016. He received a PhD in 2014 for developing a sophisticated radiobiological model capable of predicting cell damage and repair from proton radiation on a nanometre scale.
He works clinically as a medical physicist and has lectured in medical physics at the University of Adelaide. Michael is involved in the supervision of students, with his research and supervision activities leading to more than 26 refereed publications. He has presented many times at conferences and the value of his research is demonstrated by the number of awards won for his PhD.
Michael has been an active member of the ACPSEM for the last decade and has been involved in the mentoring program, the Particle Therapy Working Group and the Software Development Task Group.
Interestingly, he has illustrated approximately 100 figures for the textbook “Physics of Radiology, 5th Edition” and has won awards in the Better Healthcare Technology Foundation’s Photography in Medical Physics Competition. Michael is described as one of the most competent, yet humble, medical physicists and is a worthy winner of this Award.
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BOYCE WORTHLEY YOUNG ACHIEVER AWARD
Dr Adam Yeo
Joint Young Achiever Award Winner 2021
Dr Adam Yeo has recently taken on the role of proton physicist at Peter MacCallum in Melbourne, where he is leading the physics team in developing a Victorian business case for proton therapy.
Adam is one of those physicists who produced highly cited papers during his PhD work (on deformable registration) and managed to keep publishing while moving into a full-time clinical role.
Adam was certified as a ROMP physicist in 2016. He is heavily involved in education and training and supervises several higher degree research students. Adam is the recipient of two research grants and is involved in several ACPSEM groups including the Clinical Training Guide Working Group and the Medical Image Registration Special Interest Group.
He has convened an EPSM Summer School and has clinical trial involvement through the TransTasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG). It will be exciting to see what Adam will achieve in a career that he is only just embarking on.
PhD AWARD
Dr Marco Marcello
PhD Thesis Award Winner 2021
The prize money for the PhD Award is provided by Prof Tomas Kron to recognise the best PhD thesis in Physical and Engineering Sciences with relevance for medicine. The 2021 PhD Award goes to Dr Marco Marcello.
He undertook the first ever whole-pelvis study of the spatial associations of radiotherapy dose with disease progression and treatment toxicity. Marco invented a method for examining the relationship between dose to individual voxels of tissue, progression and toxicity outcomes, whilst considering the inter-relationship and inter-dependence of those voxels.
His PhD was completed at the University of Western Australia and conferred in 2020. He published five first-author papers as a result of his PhD research.
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DAVID ROBINSON INNOVATION AWARD
Dr Rance Tino
Innovation Award Winner 2021
The winner of the 2021 David Robinson Award for innovative work related to diagnostic imaging or biomedical engineering is Dr Rance Tino.
Rance has just completed his PhD at RMIT University and has been part of a team using additive manufacturing for medical physics applications in a clinical setting. Rance used a segmented CT dataset to extract soft-, bone-, and lung-tissue volumes and developed the 3D printing workflows compatible with a low-cost 3D printer to manufacture customisable anthropomorphic phantoms.
End-to-end testing of VMAT treatment plans for spine and lung SABR scenarios have been undertaken at Peter MacCallum to demonstrate the clinical feasibility of the 3D printed phantom for radiotherapy applications.
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KENNETH CLARKE JOURNAL AWARD
Annabelle Austin
Annabelle M. Austin,Michael J. J. Douglass,Giang T. Nguyen &Scott N. Penfold
Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine volume 43, pages 493–503 (2020)
(The Official Journal of the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine)
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Congratulations to the Foundation 2021 Award Winners.
Sincerely,
Ivan Williams
Co-Chair, ACPSEM Foundation Board,
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2020 Award Winners
The ACPSEM Awards recognise Medical Physicists, Biomedical Engineers, and Radiopharmaceutical Scientists who have made outstanding achievements and contributions in advancing healthcare services and professional standards for the benefit and protection of the community.
Nominations for this year were received for the Award categories;
Boyce Worthley Young Achiever Award;
PhD Award;
David Robinson Innovation Award; and
The Kenneth Clarke Journal Award (decided by the Journal Editorial Board).
BOYCE WORTHLEY YOUNG ACHIEVER AWARD
Associate Professor Scott Crowe
Young Achiever Award Winner 2020
The Boyce Worthley Young Achiever, ACPSEM Award Winner 2020, recognises a younger member of the College for a significant contribution to the profession of physical and engineering sciences in medicine.
Many ACPSEM members would already know Scott and, given his reputation and many career achievements, it would be easy to think of Scott as an established medical physicist. However, he received his PhD in 2011 and achieved ROMP certification this year, completing the TEAP program in record time.
He is immediate past Chair of the Professional Standards Board where he helped transition the PSB through the new College governance framework. He’s a member of the Advisory Forum, Particle Therapy Working Group, and Queensland Branch Committee. He is also an Associate Editor of the ACPSEM journal PESM.
A recipient of the Boyce Worthley Award is expected to have several refereed publications. In Scott’s case, he has published 95 papers and that is probably already out of date! He is building an international reputation in radiotherapy treatment plan analysis and QA outcome prediction, as well as forays into 3D printing.
Scott Crowe has achieved much in his career already and makes an outstanding contribution to the profession.
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PhD AWARD
Dr Giordano Biasi
PhD Thesis Award Winner 2020
The best PhD thesis, ACPSEM Award Winners 2020, in Physical and Engineering Sciences with relevance to medicine is Dr Giordano Biasi.
This year saw the most applications ever received for this Award, which is evidence of the amount of postgraduate work being undertaken in this field.
In Giordano’s PhD, he designed a prototype solid-state array detector for small-field dosimetry in megavoltage photon beams. Small field dosimetry is very time consuming and challenging to get right. Past poor small field dosimetry measurements have resulted in catastrophic effects for patients receiving stereotactic radiosurgery.
Giordano’s solution to this problem was to design a radiation detector array which allows, in a single measurement, full 2D characterisation of small radiation fields with very high spatial and temporal resolution. The device has commercial potential and would be a welcome addition to any medical physicist’s toolkit.
His PhD was completed at the Centre for Medical Radiation Physics, the University of Wollongong. Giordano’s PhD is an excellent example of ‘bench to bedside’ translational medical physics research.
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DAVID ROBINSON INNOVATION AWARD
Juliette Harley
Innovation Award Winner 2020
The David Robinson, ACPSEM Award Winner 2020, for innovative work related to diagnostic imaging or biomedical engineering is Juliette Harley.
As a first year PhD student enrolled in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney, Juliette has undertaken this work in collaboration with VectorLAB at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse. She is investigating the applications of plasma and plasma activated solutions in the treatment of poor prognosis cancers.
The innovation of the study is the development of a device that allows a gas plasma activated solution to be generated inside a hypodermic needle for immediate injection into the treatment area. Small volumes are able to be made, tailored to the needs of the patient being treated.
Additionally, the clinician is able to maintain the sterility of the activated liquid, as activating the liquid inside the sterile environment of the syringe removes the need to expose the liquid to any external pathogens in transportation.
This is an advantage over current devices in use in the laboratory, which are only able to activate liquids in an open container. Juliette’s passion for transferring new technology to the clinic is evident in her application for this award.
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Seonaid Rodgers
Honourable Mention
for Innovation Award 2020
An honorable mention for the 2020 David Robinson Award for innovative work related to diagnostic imaging or biomedical engineering is given to Seonaid Rodgers.
She currently works as a diagnostic imaging medical physicist at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital while also completing the final year of the Medical Physics Masters course at the University of Western Australia.
The Awards panel were impressed with Seonaid’s development of a novel paediatric (newborn) chest phantom for assessment of CT image quality and dosimetry. The phantom could be adapted to a wide range of clinical situations and will have utility for paediatric dose optimisation in CT scans.
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KENNETH CLARKE JOURNAL AWARD
Dr Tania Kairn
Joint Journal Award winner 2020
with A/Prof. Scott Crowe
The joint Journal, ACPSEM Award Winners 2020, are Dr Tanya Kairn and A/Prof. Scott Crowe for their paper:
Australas Phys Eng Sci Med 42, 227–233 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13246-019-00725-w
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On behalf of the Board of the Better Healthcare Technology Foundation, we send our congratulations to the ACPSEM Award Winners 2020.
Sincerely,
Anna Ralston
Chair, Better Healthcare Technology Foundation Board
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2019 Award Winners
Home > PhD Awards 2019 > Boyce Worthley Achiever Award 2019 > Richard Bates Travel Scholarship 2019 > Kenneth Clarke Journal Award 2019
The ACPSEM Awards announced during the 2019 Engineering and Physical Sciences in Medicine (EPSM) Conference were originally established by the ACPSEM Foundation to recognise the achievement and contributions made by Medical Physicists, Biomedical Engineers and Radiopharmaceutical Scientists in advancing services and professional standards for the benefit and protection of the community.
Nominations this year were received under four award categories:
- the PhD Award;
- the Richard Bates Travel Award; and
- the Boyce Worthley Early Career Award.
The fourth category – the Kenneth Clarke Journal Award is decided by the Journal Editorial Board.
The 2019 winners are:
PhD AWARD
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BOYCE WORTHLEY YOUNG ACHIEVER AWARD
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RICHARD BATES TRAVEL SCHOLARSHIP
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KENNETH CLARKE JOURNAL AWARD
The Board of the Better Healthcare Technology Foundation congratulates all these worthy winners of this year’s 2019 Awards.
Dr Sean Geogeghan PhD MACPSEM QMPS
Chairman,
Better Healthcare Technology Foundation
Home > PhD Awards 2019 > Boyce Worthley Achiever Award 2019 > Richard Bates Travel Scholarship 2019 > Kenneth Clarke Journal Award 2019
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2018 Award Winners
During the formal launch of Better Healthcare Technology Foundation (previously ACPSEM Foundation Ltd) at the EPSM 2018 conference, the Board Chairman, Dr Sean Geoghegan, announced the winners of the 2018 ACPSEM Awards.
Better Healthcare Technology congratulates the 2018 ACPSEM Award recipients:
David Robinson Innovation Prize
(annual cash prize of $1,200)
- Georgio Katsifis
. to assist attending the EPSM conference and present a paper detailing innovative work related to diagnostic imaging or biomedical engineering.
Boyce Worthley Young Achiever Award
(EPSM 2019 registration, travel & accommodation)
- Nick Hardcastle
Received for a significant contribution by a younger member to the profession of physical and engineering sciences in medicine.
Richard Bates Travel Scholarship
(Travel scholarship $5,000)
- Andrew Fielding
Awarded to assist a physical scientist or engineer to undertake a period of study or carry out a research project overseas.
Tomas Kron PhD Award
(cash prize of $500)
- Brendan Whelan
Awarded for the best PhD thesis in Physical and Engineering Sciences with relevance for medicine.
The Kenneth Clarke Journal Award
(cash prize of $500)
The award, decided by the Editorial Board of the Australasian Physical & Engineering Sciences in Medicine Journal, for the best paper was:
Yu Sun, Hayley Reynolds, Darren Wraith, Scott Williams, Mary E. Finnegan, Catherine Mitchell, Declan Murphy, Martin A. Ebert, Annette Haworth (2017) – “Predicting prostate tumour location from multiparametric MRI using Gaussian kernel support vector machines: a preliminary study. Volume 40 (pgs. 39-49)”.
2018 Elekta Travel Award
- Syarifatul Ulya, (Indonesia)
Awarded to enable a Medical Physicist from the Asia-Pacific region to attend the annual Engineering and Physical Sciences in Medicine (EPSM) conference, and visit at least one radiotherapy department during that period in Australia or New Zealand, .
Better-Healthcare-Technology thanks the nominators for this year’s awards.
The Foundation also sincerely acknowledges and thanks each of this year’s Panels for their work in judging the submissions.
2018 Award recipients reported by:
Angela Wong
ACPSEM Members’ Services Officer, 6 November 2018
For the winners of past Awards, click on the year:
2018
2019
2020
2021
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