June 16, 2021

UOW PhD student awarded Best Young Researchers presentation award

Elette Engels, a current PhD student in the at UOW, recently attended the virtual High Precision X-ray Measurements International Conference (HPXM2021) hosted in Italy, where she presented results from her research.  

Elette’s presentation focussed on the integration of detectors for dosimetry, (i.e. measurement of the amount of radiation absorbed by a substance or organism), in the translation of microbeam radiation therapy from the dosimetry quality assurance stage through to in vitro experiments as well as the first long-term in vivo and ex vivo experiments.  The detectors she used have been developed by CMRP and make an important step towards increased precision in radiation treatment for cancer.

Her talk Mastering Synchrotron Microbeams for Radiotherapy: effective cancer treatment with remarkable health tissue tolerance was based on her work at the Australian Synchrotron imaging and medical beam line (IMBL) in Melbourne, as well as other related research on IMBL in collaboration with Dr Elisabeth Schultke, Department of Radio Oncology, Rostock University Medical Center, Germany.

Elette’ talk was very well-received and was awarded first place among student presentations, leading to her receiving the award for the Best Young Researcher award at the conference.