For the winners of past Awards, click on the year:
2018
2019
2020
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The ACPSEM Foundation 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.
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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