New centre for researchers to improve cancer treatment and homeland security
Monday 18 April 2011
Experts at the University of Surrey are joining forces with academics at three other universities to establish a centre of excellence for training the next generation of researchers in future particle accelerator technology and its applications in cancer diagnosis and therapy, homeland security and generation of energy.
The intensive training will cross traditional academic boundaries, combining physics with biology and medicine, and will offer students opportunities to work with industry and health authorities. This will also enhance their skills by giving them experience in leadership, entrepreneurship and management.
Physicists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, are leading the Centre for Doctoral Training, which will also include staff at Surrey’s Ion Beam Centre and academics at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Huddersfield.
It will train more than 30 PhD students in the practical applications of the accelerators, powerful, compact devices operated by using lasers and plasma.
The centre is to receive £2m from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). It will be delivering applications for accelerator technology being developed in three existing projects involving Strathclyde, Queen’s, Huddersfield and Surrey.
This new Centre will sit alongside the University of Surrey’s highly successful EPSRC Industrial Doctoral Centres (IDC). And like the IDCs working with end users is a key factor in the success of this new CDT. Over 25 end users have expressed an interest in being involved and as part of the training the post graduate researchers will spend a 3-6 month placement with an end user.
Professor Karen Kirkby, the Centre’s Academic Director at the University of Surrey, said: “This is an exciting opportunity which addresses a national need and will give a new generation of researchers the multidisciplinary skills they need to bring about a paradigm shift in the way we design and use accelerators for a wide range of applications. “
The centre will provide Doctoral training (PhD) to around 12 students per year across the four universities. Students will take a range of compulsory courses in their first year and produce a 1,000-word research proposal in their second year. In their third year, they will spend at least six months on an industrial and clinical placement and, by the end of their final year, will have written at least one paper which has been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal or equivalent.
Professor Dino Jaroszynski, of Strathclyde’s Department of Physics, is director of the Centre for Doctoral Training. He said: “We have great pleasure in setting up this centre, where the research and teaching will enable us to produce future leaders in the use of accelerators, which have become a vital tool in science and industry.
“Healthcare patients, national security and the economy all stand to benefit from this project- it will develop fully-rounded practitioners with physical, biological, clinical and industrial expertise who can respond to urgent needs in these areas.
“Members of the partnership are world leaders in their fields and have access to internationally competitive facilities- this will help us to produce the high calibre of experts urgently needed to meet the challenges of today’s world. For example, there is a high demand for enhanced improved cancer therapy and we are investigating techniques to improve patients’ treatment and quality of life.”
Media Enquiries
Howard Wheeler, Press Office at the University of Surrey, Tel: +44 (0)1483 686141, or Email mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk
Howard Wheeler, Press Office at the University of Surrey, Tel: +44 (0)1483 686141, or Email mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk