Currently there is increasing interest in FLASH radiation therapy, which may be a paradigm-shifting new method for delivering a high dose of radiation at an ultra-high dose rate (>40Gy/s). The technique has been shown to protect normal tissue and organs while maintaining anti-tumour efficacy equivalent to that of conventional radiation therapy at similar dose levels. The successful applicant will work on developing new methods to apply proton and helium therapy on FLASH time scale, making use of Spread-Out-Bragg-Peak (SOBP) for optimal longitudinal dose distribution.
The research will include:
- Developing of a composite ridge filter capable of generating SOBP with varying transverse dose intensity.
- Testing the filters with PARTREC beams on a phantoms, mimicking realistic tumours from the past irradiations at UMCG.
- Investigation of application of ultra-fast scanning techniques for transverse beam distribution.
- Development of suitable beam delivery control and dosimetry tools for PARTREC proton and helium beam.
- Support the formulation of the protocol towards clinical adoption of in SOBP FLASH irradiations.

- Master degree in Physics.
- Should be enthusiastic, ambitious, and organized and have interest in medical applications and technology.
- Good knowledge in the English language, written as well as spoken.
- Collaborative, communication and networking skills are mandatory.
- Readiness for occasional work is a radiation protection environment and work outside of office hours.
- Experience in accelerator or radiation physics is preferred.

It concerns a full time appointment (36 hours a week) for a period of four years to be concluded with a PhD examination. After one year, the performance of the candidate will be evaluated to decide whether there is sufficient progress to expect a successful completion of the PhD thesis within the coming three years. Your salary will be a minimum of € 2.631,- gross per month in the first year and a maximum of € 3.336,- gross per month (scale PhD) in the final (4th) year, based on a full-time appointment. In addition, the UMCG will offer you 8% holiday pay, and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. The conditions of employment comply with the Collective Labour Agreement for Medical Centres (CAO-UMC).

ERIBA

Within the UMCG PARticle Therapy REsearch Center (PARTREC), which is embedded in the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems of the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) in the Netherlands, we are looking for a PhD student in radiation physics with a focus on preclinical particle therapy research. The successful candidate will contribute to the realization of a new irradiation technique for conformal FLASH therapy with proton and helium beams.