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 In Scott’s case, he has published 95 papers and that is probably already out of date!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
