What are you doing, Mr X? Part 3
This week, the Mr X comes to Roland Schnuerer. He is a first year PhD student in the Quasar group. With previous master degree of Medical physics, he is right now working at developing an online dose monitor based on a novel type of diagnostic, LHCb VELO detector. As the name suggests, the device is served previously as a component in one of the LHC detectors for the discovery of new particles. Right now, Roland applies this technology into medical side, to be specific, the proton or heavy ion cancer therapy, which is a brand new type of radiation method to cure cancer. Talking about the radiation, with careful correlating the dose deposit on the patient and the tail distribution measured by the VELO detector, it will allow medical physician to accurately calculate the quality and efficacy of the treatment and set up a treatment plan for the patients. Roland’s work involves the operation and optimisation of the device on a daily basis to solve the above challenge. His current research is also collaborated with Clatterbridge Cancer Centre with their 60 MeV proton beam.
In the picture, Roland is preparing the VELO detector, such as connecting cables, tuning up the low-voltage and high-voltage power supply, setting up the chiller and etc. which is routine work done by him for every experiment.