November 5th
Speaker: Olivia Masella
Institution: University of Vicotria
Title: KOALA: Bringing accessible radiotherapy to under-served communities
Bio: Olivia Masella is a 3rd year PhD student at the University of Victoria in Victoria, BC. Her research is focused on developing a novel low-cost radiotherapy device to increase access in low-resource settings such as low- and middle-income countries and rural regions. She holds a BSc in physics from the University of Waterloo, where she researched a vascular spheroid growth model (in silico) and developed a chemotherapy model to simulate treatments. Olivia has been exposed to several different research areas such as Monte Carlo modelling, radiation safety, commissioning, and deep learning techniques. She is actively engaged in the community, having recently help organize the Canadian Undergraduate Medical Physics Conference this past summer
November 12th
Speaker: Claire Park
Institution: Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Title: Toward Adaptive Dose Painting: Optimization of MP2RAGE for T1 Mapping in Low-Field 0.35T MR-Linac for Oxygen-Enhanced (OE)-MRI
Bio: Claire KS Park, PhD is a Medical Physics Resident and NSERC Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. She is currently learning in the clinic as a PGY-2, and previously completed her Research Fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Claire received her PhD in Medical Biophysics at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, where her thesis was focused on the development of mechatronic systems for ultrasound-guided interventions and point-of-care breast cancer screening in increased-risk populations. To date, she has published 8 journal articles (4 first-author, 2 Editor’s Choice) and showcased her work with over 50 presentations. Her contributions have been recognized with over 50 awards, including 1st Place AAPM John R. Cameron ECIS Award, AAPM Best In Physics, SPIE Robert F. Wagner Award and Young Scientist Award Runner-Up, and the COMP Sylvia Fedoruk Award in Medical Physics. Claire is also a leader in the medical physics community, as the past Chair of COMP Student’s Council, Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) Research Information Outreach Team, and active member of various AAPM committees, including STSC, WGSTR, GRSIC, WGSCEDI, and most recently as Chair of the AAPM Global Research and Scientific Innovation (GRSIC) Global Early Career Research SC (GECRSC). Claire’s current research interests lie within the intersection of imaging and radiotherapy, including image-guided and online adaptive radiotherapy, and expanding accessible healthcare.
November 19th
Speaker: Jessica Im
Institution: University of Pennsylvania
Title: From Mechanics to Medicine and Back Again: 3D Printers, X-Rays, and Squishy Lungs
Bio: Jessica Im is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Bioengineering and Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Princeton University. During her graduate studies, she underwent preclinical medical training at the Perelman School of Medicine as part of the HHMI/NIBIB Interfaces Program in Biomedical Imaging and is now part of the Laboratory for Advanced Computed Tomography Imaging (LACTI) under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Noël. Jessica’s interest is in advancing the development of patient specific 3D-printed CT phantoms to evaluate emerging CT technologies and promote their clinical translation. She is particularly interested in the development of lifelike deformable lung phantoms for use in applications involving respiratory motion.
November 26th
Speaker: Meghan Koo
Institution: Toronto Metropolitan University
Title: Science and Service: From quantifying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using Computed Tomography to shaping the future of equity, diversity, and inclusion of North American Medical Physics.
Bio: Meghan Koo (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in CAMPEP Medical Physics at Toronto Metropolitan University. She received her BSc at the University of Waterloo in Honours Life Physics with a Specialization in Medical Physics and her MSc at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in Biomedical Physics. Her current research under the supervision of Dr. Miranda Kirby focuses on detecting structural abnormalities in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease using texture-based CT radiomics. Previously, Meghan received the Young Investigators Symposium first place award at the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP) Annual Meeting. Meghan also serves as the co-chair of the COMP Women's Committee - Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (CWC-IDEA) and is passionate about advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) within medical physics. She is also a member of multiple American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) committees within the EDI Committee (EDIC). Outside of medical physics, Meghan was a former varsity student-athlete and is currently the Associate Head Coach of the TMU Bold Varsity Track and Field team.
