Research
STFC Cancer Diagnosis Network+ and gamma-ray imaging
I lead the national cancer diagnosis research network+, funded through the UKRI-STFC 21st Century Challenges scheme, which launched in Liverpool September 2019. I chair the multi-disciplinary leadership team drawn from the Institute of Cancer Research, King’s college London, Univeristy of Glasgow, University of Leicester, Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Guy and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust. I have established a multidisciplinary community with academic, clinical and industry stakeholders to address clinical challenges in the diagnosis of cancer. Membership is drawn from across 50 universities, companies and hospitals. The network has hosted multidisciplinary challenge-led workshops to engage key stakeholders and provide funding for scoping studies and proof of concept projects to translate STFC innovations into clinical impact. The research capacity of early career researchers (ECRs) has been developed through travel awards, placements and training. The Network+ has enabled the STFC and wider community to bid for further funding from UKRI, Innovate UK, Official Development Assistance (GCRF and Newton) and the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF). The long-term objectives are to improve patient quality of life, increase survival and reduce associated cancer services costs.
I am an internationally recognised expert in gamma-ray imaging using Compton camera systems. I apply expertise in advanced digital pulse processing, algorithm development, Monte-Carlo modelling and image reconstruction techniques to maximise the efficacy of the systems for nuclear industry applications. I also currently lead a research programme to improve the performance of the radiation detectors used within Low Dose MBI, which is a new method of identifying breast cancer in screening. This will be particularly beneficial for patients who have dense breast tissue, for which mammography has known limitations.
Gamma-ray spectroscopy for nuclear structure physics and the search for charged lepton violation
I am a Co-I of the Nuclear Physics Consoldiated Grant, for which my contribution is to exploring the limits of nuclear existence for heavy proton-rich nuclei. I have actively contributed to this experimental programme since 2014, in the commissioning of the Advanced Implantation Detector Array (AIDA) at RIKEN for beta decay studies. To exploit AIDA in future beta decay studies, I led the development of a novel segmented germanium detector to precisely correlate gamma and beta decays of exotic nuclei, funded by a £566k grant from STFC. . I supported the experimental campaign at the ISOLDE Decay Station [IDS] and led the commissioning and first use of a BEGe detector in beta decay studies of odd-mass isotopes, at ISOLDE. Since 2015, I have been coordinator of the Pulse Shape Analysis (PSA) working group for the Advanced Gamma Tracking Array (AGATA), which is a collaborative effort of over 350 physicists from 43 Institutions across Europe to build the ultimate gamma-ray spectrometer for nuclear structure physics experiments. I am also one of the 5 work package leaders in the UK funded AGATA programme (Liverpool funding £824k), supervising a PDRA and PhD student to develop state of the art digital signal processing and detector characterisation techniques.
In 2016, I joined the international collaboration of the Fermilab Mu2e experiment, which will probe properties of the muon to elucidate physics beyond the standard model at the scales being investigated at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in CERN. I was awarded £228k funding in 2017 from STFC to contribute to an essential part of the experiment, which is the development of the Stopping Target Monitor (STM). This is in collaboration with UCL (lead institute) and University of Manchester, I am PI for Liverpool. The STM will be used to provide normalisation for all measurements and is therefore an important system for Mu2e. I specified the design of the STM germanium detectors using Monte-Carlo studies and was a co-spokesperson of a radiation damage study at HZDR Dresden. At Fermialb they will be used to extend the search for charged lepton flavour violation during the experimental campaign. Mu2e collaboration is drawn from across many institutes and countries and the experiment will take place in Chicago, USA.
PhD Supervision
2013-2016: Amina Patel, 1st supervisor, EPSRC
2014-2019: Kevin Tree, 1st supervisor, EPSRC NGN CDT
2015-2019: Lucy McAreavey, 1st supervisor, STFC
2015-2019: Adam Caffrey, 1st supervisor, STFC CASE
2015-2020: Ellis Rintoul, 2nd supervisor, EPSRC NGN CDT
2016-2021: Fiona Pearce, 1st supervisor, GTA
2017-2021 Jacob Heery, 2nd supervisor, STFC
2017-2022: Fraser Holloway, 1st supervisor, STFC LIV.DAT CDT
2017-2023: Olivia Voyce, 1st supervisor, EPSRC NGN CDT
2017-2022: Hamed Alshammari, 1st supervisor
2018-2022: Sarah Kalantan, 2nd supervisor
2018-2024: Hannah Brown, 1st supervisor, STFC
2018-present: Shiyamjith Nathaniel, 2nd supervisor, STFC LIV.DAT CDT
2020-present: Ahmed Alharbi, 1st supervisor
2020-present: Owain Griffiths, 1st supervisor, EPSRC GREEN CDT
2021-present: Christopher Everett, 2nd supervisor, STFC
2023-present: Nawaf Altasan, 1st supervisor
Research groups
Research grants
Evaluation and validation of the SIGMA gamma-ray tracking detector in relevant environments (ENVISAGE)
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
November 2023 - October 2026
STFC Cancer Diagnosis Network
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
June 2019 - September 2024
Experimental Particle Physics Consolidated Grant 2019
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
October 2019 - September 2025
Leverhulme international professorship. Muon Programme
LEVERHULME TRUST (UK)
October 2022 - September 2027
INTENSE: particle physics experiments at the high intensity frontier, from new physics to spin-offs. A cooperative Europe - United States - Japan effort
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
July 2022 - December 2024
Experimental Particle Physics Consolidated Grant 2022
UK RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
October 2022 - September 2025
Mu2e: a proposal to extend the sensitivity to charged lepton flavour violation by 4 orders of magnitude
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
April 2017 - September 2021
Accelerating the development of novel technologies for nuclear physics
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
January 2022 - March 2022
Nuclear Physics Consolidated Grant
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
October 2017 - March 2022
Sub pixel resolution in Cadmium Zinc Telluride detectors for Low Dose Molecular Breast Imaging
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
July 2019 - December 2022
consolidated grant tbc
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
October 2024 - September 2027
Capital Equipment 2018
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
October 2018 - March 2019
The tale of two tunnels
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
May 2018 - November 2024
A three-dimensional integrated gamma-ray and vision system
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
July 2016 - January 2020
Quantitative SPECT for dosimetry of 131I molecular radiotherapy
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
July 2015 - June 2017
Imaging of prompt gamma emissions during proton cancer therapy for geometric and dosimetric verification
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
September 2015 - August 2017
Development of the Segmented Inverted Coaxial Germanium (SIGMA) Detector for Enhanced Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy and Imaging
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
July 2015 - June 2018