January 2022 MPBE Departmental Newsletter

Röntgen's Radio

What better way to start the new year than a brand new episode of the MPBE podcast! We’ve also had a little refresher; the PEM Podcast is now Röntgen's Radio, a tribute to the discoverer of the x-ray.

The first episode of this series is with Dr Rob Moss, Lecturer in Applied Radiation Physics and Rob tells us about his research in x-ray diffraction, explaining how he started in security applications before coming to identify cancers and create new x-ray detectors.

The hosts are Dr Gemma Bale and Dr Jamie Guggenheim, and it's produced by Dr Billy Dennis.

Wearable tech to study toddlers

Honorary Research Fellow, Paola Pinti’s work with the Birkbeck ToddlerLab was recently featured in The Guardian. Pinti’s research on wearable and wireless technologies is now enabling researchers to extend their studies on children to include toddlers and babies, and contributes to greater understanding of toddlers with neurodivergent disorders, such as autism.

Prof Clare Elwell and Prof Ilias Tachtsidis are also Co-Investigators at the ToddlerLab.

‘I think I look like a DJ’: lab developer Paola Pinti helps Serena put on some 3D vision glasses. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

STEM for Britain

We’re excited to announce that Doctoral Student, Oriol Roche I Morgo has been accepted to take part in STEM for Britain 2022. Oriol will represent UCL and the Department and present his research on the strengths of structured illumination x-ray phase contrast imaging for visualising features often unseen by traditional imaging on 7th March to British policymakers at the Houses of Parliament.

We wish Oriol all the best of luck!

Prof Alan Cottenden

Professor Alan Cottenden has been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to sufferers of incontinence in the 2022 New Year’s Honours.

Prof David Hawkes

Professor David Hawkes has been appointed Emeritus Professor of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering by UCL President and Provost, Dr Michael Spence, in recognition and appreciation of his services to the university.

Publications

Prof Adam Gibson has contributed a chapter on Multispectral Imaging to the recently published Picturing the Invisible: Exploring interdisciplinary synergies from the arts and the sciences. The Book is available on open access.

Fellow contributors of the Multispectral Imaging chapter were Cerys Jones (PhD Student), Jieren Sun (an undergraduate student from Hong Kong who studied Biomedical Engineering with the Department), Tabitha Tuckett (UCL Rare Books Librarian), Katy Makin (Curator at UCL Special Collections) and Melissa Terras, formally Professor of Digital Humanities at UCL who is now at the University of Edinburgh.

MPBE Student Society

We’re delighted to announce that the UCL Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering Student Society is LIVE! Created by students, for students!

Follow @uclmpbesoc on Instagram to meet the committee members and get updates on events and activities throughout the year.