Prof. Vincenzo Patera

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  • Short CV: Ho iniziato la mia carriera nel campo della fisica delle particelle fondamentali, lavorando all'esperimento sotterraneo MACRO e all'esperimento KLOE presso il collisore elettrone-positrone DA$\Phi$NE. Nel 2012 ho fondato l'Applied Radiation Physics Group (ARPG), focalizzato sulla fisica applicata alla medicina in generale e sulla terapia con particelle (PT) in particolare. Come primo impegno in questo campo, ho guidato la ricerca sulla frammentazione dei fasci terapeutici nella terapia con particelle per migliorare i modelli di simulazione e di pianificazione del trattamento. Questo lavoro ha permesso di acquisire competenze cruciali per l'ottimizzazione dei rivelatori di monitoraggio e la misurazione delle particelle secondarie. Ho inoltre sviluppato modelli Monte Carlo (MC) di fisica nucleare specifici per le energie della terapia con particelle e ho coordinato importanti campagne di misurazione e analisi dei dati [1,2]. Ben presto ho compreso la necessità di un monitoraggio avanzato nella PT e ho guidato la progettazione di un rivelatore a doppia modalità che utilizza fotoni PET e particelle cariche secondarie, sviluppato all'interno del progetto INSIDE. I numerosi dati ottenuti con fasci di ioni su bersagli in PMMA hanno guidato l'ottimizzazione dei parametri di monitoraggio del trattamento online [3]. INSIDE è attualmente installato al CNAO, dove viene utilizzato nella seconda fase del primo studio clinico per il monitoraggio inter-frazionale nella terapia del cancro con protoni e ioni carbonio [4]. Dal 2014, il mio gruppo ha iniziato a sviluppare un rivelatore per il tracciamento di neutroni per i centri di PT, sfruttando fibre scintillanti e un'elettronica dedicata basata su SPAD. Il primo articolo della collaborazione MONDO delinea le sfide tecniche per ottenere un'elevata efficienza e un backtracking preciso per questa applicazione [5]. Dopo aver ricoperto il ruolo di portavoce per l'esperimento FIRST, nel 2016 ho proposto e coordinato l'esperimento FOOT per studiare l'Efficacia Biologica Relativa (RBE) dei protoni e le sezioni d'urto di frammentazione rilevanti per la PT e la radiazione spaziale. Ho coordinato la progettazione dell'apparato e successivamente la presa dati (GSI, CNAO) con vari fasci di ioni [6,7]. Parallelamente all'attività sperimentale, ho guidato lo sviluppo di codici Monte Carlo per la terapia con particelle, inclusa la co-autoria di FLUKA e la direzione della creazione del codice MC veloce FRED [8,9]. Dal 2020 guido la ricerca sulla radioterapia a ultra-alto rateo di dose (UHDR). Questi studi sono spinti dalla potenziale svolta nella terapia del cancro seguita alla scoperta dell'effetto Flash. Le attività che ho coordinato comprendono sia studi in silico, come lo sviluppo di sistemi di pianificazione del trattamento (TPS) per elettroni, sia ricerca e sviluppo su rivelatori innovativi. I risultati prodotti sotto la mia supervisione hanno valutato le prestazioni ottenibili con fasci di elettroni ad alta energia (VHEE) e radioterapia esterna a bassa energia (IORT), entrambi erogati in modalità UHDR [10]. Il mio impegno più recente in questo campo è stato il progetto SAFEST (SApienza Flash Electron Source for radio-Therapy), focalizzato sulla progettazione e costruzione di un LINAC per elettroni UHDR per trattamenti VHEE compatibile con l'ambiente clinico. Dopo 15 anni di ricerca nella fisica applicata alla medicina, inclusi lo sviluppo di rivelatori innovativi, il progresso di strumenti computazionali all'avanguardia e l'innovazione nel campo degli acceleratori per radioterapia, sono certo di possedere il bagaglio necessario per innovare profondamente il concetto di PT di precisione.

Prof. Riccardo Faccini

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  • Short CV: Full professor of the Dept of Physics of the University of Rome La Sapienza. Graduated in 1993 with a thesis on the Search of the Higgs Boson with the L3 Experiment, after the PhD moved to SLAC to work on the measurement of CP violation in B decays with the BaBar experiment where he lead the first measurement of sin2beta. After being the Physics Coordinator of the BaBar experiment in 2005-2006, he carried on phenomenological studies on the possible nature of candidate tetraquark state. Since 2008 he has gradually concentrated on applications of particle physics detectors, starting with diagnostics in laser plasma acceleration and now concentrating on dosimetry in hadrontherapy and the development of a novel radio-guided surgery technique. More details in babar.roma1.infn.it/~faccini

Prof. Angelo Schiavi

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  • Short CV: Associate Professor of the "Basic and Applied Sciences for Engineering" Department of the University of Rome "La Sapienza". Graduated at Padua University on quantum field theory. Received a PhD from Imperial College London on experimental physics for laser-accelerated proton beam generation and applications. Working at Sapienza University since 2002 on numerical simulation of target implosions for Inertial Confinement Fusion projects. Developer of the fast Monte-Carlo code Fred (fred-mc.org). Angelo CV can be downloaded from here.

Res. Valerio Bocci

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  • Short CV: Valerio Bocci is senior Technologiest of INFN Roma. He graduate in Particle Phisics in 1991 in the University of Rome Tor Vergata with a thesis A Single Photon trigger in DELPHI experiment at CERN. He continued the work at CERN in the DEPHI Trigger group designing the main modules for trigger and timing distribution. In 1993 he started to work in KLOE experiment in National in Frascati Laboratory (LNF) as one of the main designer of the Trigger system and Data acquisition. From 1998 he worked in the Atlas experiment trigger group at CERN and he was one of the first in scientific Literature to propose and dimostrate the possibily to use Field Programmable Gate Array in radiation environment, his work was cited also from indipendent study of NASA. In 1999 join the LHCb experiment at CERN and was the ideator and coordinator of the control system of muon chamber subdetector. In 2006 he was the Electronic coordinator of the Electromagnetic calorimeter of SuperB proposal of experiment. Now as Electronic lab coordinator of INFN Rome , he is involved in LHCb upgrade and join this group with the idea to transfer his competence in particle detectors and related electronics in the health field. http://scholar.google.it/citations?user=ioiiBe4AAAAJ&hl=it

Prof. Alessio Sarti

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  • Short CV: Associate Professor of the "Basic and Applied Sciences for Engineering" Department of the University of Rome "La Sapienza". Graduated in 2000 the BaBar experiment, he spent his PhD in the Babar experiment working on the study of semileptonic B decays measuring the |Vub| element of the CKM matrix. Since 2004 he started the study of leptonic B decays at the LHCb experiment at the LHC collider at CERN, contributing to the Bd,s to µµ decay study. In 2009 he also started his activity in the applied research contributing to the Fragmentation studies (FIRST), the secondary production in hadrontherapy beams interaction with PMMA phantoms (Explora collaboration and LNS, GSI, CNAO and HIT measurement campaigns) and dosimetric tasks (RDH, INSIDE).

Prof. Cecilia Voena

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  • Short CV: Cecilia Voena is a researcher at INFN Roma. She is member of the MEG collaboration at the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland) that searches for physcs beyond the Standard Model (of particle physics). As far as applied physics is concerned, she is working on the design and reconstruction software of the dose profiler for hadrontherapy.

Res. Marco Garbini

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  • Short CV: I have been a permanent researcher at CREF since 2018. My research activity takes place in the field of Experimental Particle and Astro Particle Physics, and in particular, I participate and have participated in experiments for the direct detection of Dark Matter, the detection of Collapse neutrinos, Gravitational and ground detection and the study of Cosmic Rays. Since 2005, I have participated in the Extreme Energy Events Project experiment – “Science in Schools”, for the ground-based study of cosmic rays and extended showers. Since 2020, I have held the role of Scientific Manager of the Project at the Enrico Fermi Research Center and National Manager of the Experiment. I collaborate on the CREF Hadron-Radiotherapy project, FlashDC – Flash Dosimeter Counter, to develop a beam dosimeter-monitor for new Flash-type therapies. I am part of the LVD (Large Volume Detector) experiment for the study of supernova neutrinos from gravitational collapse located at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories of the INFN, and I have worked in experiments for the direct search for Dark Matter (XENON and DarkSide). Since 2014, I have been a contract professor at the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, where I taught modules for the Nuclear and Subnuclear Physics Laboratory course for the degree course in Physics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the module of Statistics for the Biotechnology Course of Study (Physics and Statistics-Module teaching) and the Statistics Module for the integrated course APPLIED PHYSICS, COMPUTER SCIENCE AND STATISTICS (C.I.) of the Single Cycle Master’s Degree in Veterinary Medicine.

Res. Michela Marafini

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  • Short CV: I studied Physics in Rome, at the E. Amaldi University of Roma Tre, where I graduated in Nuclear and Sub-Nuclear Physics in January 2008. I moved immediately after to France where I started a Doctorate in Particle Physics at the Paris 7 University, in the APC laboratory (AstroParticule et Cosmologie). In Paris, I worked on a new generation experiment, MEMPHYS, dedicated to the measurement of neutrinos, building a 8 tons prototype of water Cherenkov  detector and studying a new electronic readout system (ParisRoc). After my doctorate, I moved back to Rome, with research grants at the Centro Fermi, Sapienza and INFN, and I joined the ARPG group (Applied Radiation Physics Group). I immediately started working in a new field of research for me: physics applied to medicine. In particular, we measured the flux of charged and neutral particles produced in particle therapy. With the ARPG group I did many measurements campaigns, data analysis and small R&D projects, up to the design of a new detector (Dose Profiler), a monitor of range and dose for therapeutic beams for the CNAO Center of Adrotherapy. In 2015 I also started working as Principal Investigator on an innovative tracker dedicated to the characterisation of the ultrafast neutrons produced in particle therapy: MONDO. In addition to the realisation of the detector with scintillating fibres, I worked in collaboration with FBK to develop a silicon sensor (based on SPAD) specifically dedicated to this application. MONDO will be the first neutron tracker in the energy range of interest for particle therapy. From 2015, together with a small group of colleagues, I developed a new way to detect particles with GEMs: it is a triple GEM detector that exploits a sCMOS camera to take images of the particles’ tracks. This new detector has been used in different applications, for example by the CYGNO experiment for the search for dark matter, and proposed for beam monitoring purposes in particle therapy. During these years I have studied, developed and characterised new scintillators useful in multiple research fields, for the most promising ones we proposed a patent (Sapienza and Centro Fermi). In recent years I have become part of the collaboration of the FOOT experiment, dedicated to the measurement of the fragmentation of the elements constituting the human body (C, O, H). These measures will serve to evaluate the RBE (Relative Biological Effectiveness) of protons in particle therapy and to evaluate the shielding materials for radiation protection in space travel. Since 2019 I am a researcher at the Centro Fermi. My research is mainly devoted to the development of innovative detectors in medical applications.

Prof. Marco Toppi

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  • Short CV: I studied particle physics at the University of Rome ”Tor Vergata”. I graduated within the ATLAS group of Tor Vergata working on the development of a new generation of RPCs gas detector for heavy irradiation environments applications. My research activity during the PhD has been focused on the study of the nuclear fragmentation processes in the interaction of light ion beams with different thin targets. In particular I dealt with the analysis of the data acquired at GSI laboratories with the FIRST (Fragmentation of Ions Relevant for Space and Therapy) experiment, for the measurement of fragmentation differential cross sections. Currently, my post-doc activity focus on the measurements of secondary particles produced in the interaction of ion beams with therapeutical energies with PMMA target, in order to study the feasibility of an on-line monitor for particle therapy treatment. 

Prof. Carlo Mancini Terracciano

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  • Short CV: I graduated at Rome University “Sapienza" in 2011 in particle physics. I got the Ph.D in "Roma Tre” University in 2015. I worked as a Fellow at CERN within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN “ENTERVISION” on the development and benchmarking of Carbon ion breakup models in the energy range relevant for hadrontherapy. I am currently working on the development of a probe to help surgeons to perform a complete tumour resection using beta minus radio tracers.

Res. Giacomo Traini

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  • Short CV: I studied particle physics at Rome University "La Sapienza" and I graduated in 2014. For my thesis I worked within the ARPG group, studing the production of beta+ emitters in a PMMA target irratiated by Helium beam, for dose monitoring purposes. In particular I performed analysis on data acquired during an experiment realized at HIT hadrontherapy center in Heidelberg in 2014. Now I am a INFN permanent researcher ; my research activity is focused on the development of a dose profiler monitor for hadrontherapy treatments. In paricular I'm dealing with the realization and test of trigger and readout system of the apparatus.

Res. Riccardo Mirabelli

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  • Short CV: I joined the ARPG group in March 2016 and during my Master thesis in particle physics I worked on the characterization of a prototype for the MONDO project, whose main goal is to develop a tracking detector targeting fast and ultra-fast secondary neutrons. The information obtained from my work will be used to design the final device. During my Ph.D in Rome University "Sapienza" I continue my research work in the MONDO collaboration. Now as a PostDoc, I am working on the development of a new Wearable Individual Dose Monitoring Apparatus (WIDMApp) for the Dose Monitoring in Molecular Radiotherapy.  

Res. Francesco Collamati

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  • Short CV: I am a particle physicist, and I graduated in 2011 at Rome University “Sapienza”. I started to be interested in medical physics since my very first years. For my Thesis I took part at an experiment on a therapeutic Carbon Beam in Catania, on which data I performed an analysis in order to study the correlation between dose delivered to the target and beta+ emitters activation for dosimetric purposes. Between 2012 and 2015 I was a PhD Student in Physics, and for my thesis,  I studied a novel technique of radio guided surgery that uses beta minus emitters (instead of gammas), with strong improve in detecting resolution and dose limitation. My principal activity is with FLUKA Monte Carlo, in which I import Dicom files from patients scans (PET/CT) in order to study the behavior of our detector in a realistic environment. I am currently a permanent INFN researcher. Winner of SPRINGER THESIS AWARD in 2015.