Two open PhD positions to investigate novel dosimetry solutions for advanced radiotherapy treatment techniques

Radiation therapy is one of the main treatments for cancer care. It consists in irradiating the tumor, while limiting the toxicity associated with the exposure of healthy tissues. Nowadays, there is a strong and continuous development of innovative irradiation modalities, including very high dose rate irradiation (FLASH therapy) and carbon therapy. Determining accurately the dose distribution in the patient is of paramount importance in order to ensure an effective and safe treatment delivery. This starts with proper measurement in simple irradiation conditions with adequate dosimetric equipment. As current devices used for dosimetry suffer from strong limitations for those applications, the research aims to develop and test novel dosimetric equipment, tailored to the specificities of the treatment modalities of the future.

Université catholique de Louvain offers two PhD positions to investigate novel dosimetric solutions for cutting-edge radiotherapy treatment modalities. This includes:

Study and quantify the ion recombination effect in the context of ultra-high dose rates and carbon therapy. This entails both simulation and experiments.
Develop novel ion chambers geometries, electrometer, and post-processing units optimized for non-conventional irradiation conditions.
Develop a highly accurate water calorimetry primary dosimetric standard and use it for calibration of ion chambers.
Investigate novel calibration methods more adapted to the specificities of the irradiation modalities envisaged (for instance, the dose-area product).