Short Course Program
An excellent set of short courses will be given at the start of
the NSS/MIC programs, covering a wide range of nuclear and
medical imaging technology. All courses are one day in length.
The first lecture will begin at 09:30. Lunch, refreshments, lecture
notes, and a certification of completion are also provided as part
of the short course registration fee.
Contact:
Joao Varela
NSS Short Course Chair
Grant Gullberg
MIC Short Course Chair
1. Experimental Techniques in Nuclear and Particle Physics
- Stefaan Tavernier
This one-day course provides an introduction to the design and
the use of instruments for the detection of energetic subatomic
particles. Emphasis is on the fundamental processes that govern
the operation of such detectors, rather than on operational details
of specific instruments. The class begins with a brief overview
of the interactions of energetic subatomic particles in matter.
Nearly all detectors are either based on the use of ionisation in
gases, on the use of ionisation in semiconductor materials, or
on the use of scintillation light; and this classification is used to
structure the course. Examples of applications of these detectors
in particle physics, in nuclear physics, in homeland security, and
medical imaging will be given.
There are no prerequisites for attending this course other than the
standard physics and mathematics that is part of any curriculum
in physics or engineering. A copy of the textbook, “Experimental
techniques in nuclear and particle physics” by S. Tavernier, as
well as a set of copies of the presentations, are provided to the
registrants.
Course Outline
- Interactions of energetic subatomic particles in matter
- Detectors based on ionisation in gases
- Detectors based in ionisation in semiconductors
- Detectors based on scintillation
- Electronics and noise
Instructors
Stefaan Tavernier is professor of physics at the faculty
of sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, served as head of
the physics department for 5 years, and was chairmen of the
Research board for Science and Applied science for 5 years. He
was spokesperson of the Crystal clear collaboration for 15 years.
He has over 160 scientific publications, has 3 patents and is author
or co-author of 2 books. He has made essential contributions to
the several major high energy physics detectors, and he also made
important contributions to the development of instrumentation
for medical imaging, more in particular to PET.
Danek Kotlinski is a Senior Physicist at the Paul Scherrer
Institute in Switzerland. He received his Ph.D. from the University
of Rochester in 1984. His research interests are primarily in the
area of particle detectors and instrumentation for high energy
and nuclear physics. Presently these include applications of
semiconductor silicon detectors in particle physics, for example,
pixel vertex detectors. Other primary research interests are
detector readout electronics and data reconstruction algorithms
Since 1994 he has been one of the main developers of the pixel
detector build for the CMS/LHC experiment located at CERN.
2. High-Precision Calorimetry for Particle and Nuclear Physics
Experiments
- Erika Garutti
This one-day course is intended to provide a general overview of
the state of the art of calorimetry for particle and nuclear physics
experiments. The course is targeted to physicists and detector
specialists. The lectures cover the technology frontier aspects of
calorimetry, in terms of available material and modern concepts
for photons, electrons and hadrons measurements.
Emphasis is given to high-energy physics applications, but also
links to calorimetric techniques in photo-science and medical
applications are given. The most modern readout techniques are
discussed and compared. All aspects of large scale application of
Silicon-Photomultipliers are addressed. A basic knowledge of
detector physics is assumed.
Course Outline
- Basics of interaction of radiation and matter
- Active media used in calorimetry
- Calorimeters for electrons and photons
- Calorimeters for hadrons and neutrons
- Giga-channel calorimeters with SiPM readout
Instructors
Erika Garutti is research group leader at the Deutsches
Elektron-Syncrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany, and she has
been appointed Professor of Physics at the University of Hamburg.
In 2003 she received a PhD degree in Physics at the University
of Amsterdam for a work that included the commissioning of
a silicon strip detector for the HERMES experiment. Her main
research topics are development of highly granular calorimeter
detectors and large scale application of Silicon Photomultipliers.
The fields of application range from calorimetry for future linear
collider experiments to positron emission tomography detectors.
Her research interests cover development of multi-channel
highly integrated readout electronics and radiation hard studies
for silicon detectors.
Michele Livan is research group leader and Full professor
of Experimental Physics at the University of Pavia, Italy. He
has been working in experiments at SLAC and CERN. He is
currently a member of the ATLAS Collaboration at LHC. His
research interests cover detector technologies in the field of
gas detectors and hadron calorimeters. His group has built part
of the drift chambers of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer. He
has been active in the field of calorimetry since 1986 when he
started to work on the SPACAL Collaboration at CERN devoted
to the study of scintillating fibre calorimetry. He is now leader
of the Italian groups involved in the DREAM project for the
development of the Dual Readout technique for high resolution
hadron calorimetry.
Frank Simon is a research group leader at the Max-Planck-
Institute for Physics and at the Excellence Cluster ‘Origin and
Structure of the Universe’ at the Technical University in Munich,
Germany. He received his PhD degree at the Technical University
Munich in 2005, while working on the STAR experiment at the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in Brookhaven. His research
interests cover detector technologies in the area of calorimetry
and tracking detectors, the development of data reconstruction
techniques and physics at hadron and lepton colliders. His
current activities focus on highly granular “imaging” hadronic
calorimetry, on Silicon Photomultipliers for scintillator readout,
the detailed investigation of the properties of hadronic showers
and on physics studies for future high-energy linear colliders.
3. Integrated Circuits for Time and Amplitude Measurement of Nuclear Radiation Pulses - Angelo Rivetti
This one-day course will discuss integrated circuits for the
extraction of energy and time of occurrence information from
a radiation pulse. Emphasis will be given to the monolithic
implementation of time pick-off methods and to circuit
architectures which allow simultaneous measurements of energy
and time in a single processing channel. After a review of the
basics, each lecture will progressively delve into circuit details,
with focus on implementations in CMOS technologies. A basic
knowledge of front-end electronics for radiation detectors and
CMOS integrated circuits in recommended to take full profit of
the course.
Course Outline
- Integrated architectures and circuit optimization for energy and
time pick-off.
- High accuracy integrated timing discriminators.
- High resolution time pick-off with waveform sampling.
- Low-power multi-channel Time to Digital Converters.
- Fully integrated, high resolution CMOS systems.
Instructors
Angelo Rivetti received the degree in Physics from the
University of Torino, Italy, in 1995 and the Ph.D. in Electrical
Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of the same town
in 2000. From 1998 to 2000 he conducted his research activity
at CERN, working at the implementation of radiation tolerant
integrated circuits in commercial deep submicron CMOS
technologies. From 2000 to 2001 he was assistant professor with
the Faculty of Physics of the University of Torino. In December
2001 he joined the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics
(INFN), where he developed VLSI front-end circuits now in use in
the ALICE and COMPASS experiments at CERN. Since 2009, he
has been a senior member of the research and technology staff of
INFN in Torino. His current research interests are in the design
of front-end electronics for hybrid and monolithic pixel detectors
and in the development of low power, high resolution mixedmode
integrated circuits for charge and time measurements in
high energy physics and medical applications.
Eric Delagnes received the electrical engineering degree
from ENSEEIHT (France) and the M.S. in microelectronics
degree from Institut Polytechnique de Toulouse in 1990. Since
then, he has been active in the design of mixed mode analoguedigital
ASICs and associated electronics, used mainly to read
particle detectors with a special interest on very frontend
electronics and analogue memories He is the designer of more
than 15 ASICs, used in high energy physics, nuclear physics, and
ground, undersea or spaceborn astrophysics experiments. Since
2003, he has been responsible for the detector R&D and front-end
electronics group of CEA/IRFU (Saclay, France). Eric Delagnes
has published more than 30 papers in refereed publications and
is the patentee of 4 patents in the fields of analogue memories
and analogue to digital conversion. He received the Yves Rocard
award of the French Physics Society (SFP) in 2005.
Edoardo Charbon received the Diploma from the Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich in 1988, the
M.S. from UCSD in 1991, and the Ph.D. from UC-Berkeley in
1995, all in Electrical Engineering. From 1995 to 2000, he
was with Cadence Design Systems, where he was responsible
for analog and mixed-signal design automation tools. In 2000,
he joined Canesta Inc. as its Chief Architect, leading the
development of wireless 3D CMOS image sensors. From 2002
to 2008 he was with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
(EPFL) of Lausanne, Switzerland, working in the field of CMOS
sensors, biophotonics, and ultra low-power wireless embedded
systems. Since 2008, Prof. Charbon has been Full Professor and
Chair of VLSI design at TU Delft, where he leads research in
high performance, low power circuits, and systems. His research
interests include high-performance imaging, quantum integrated
circuits, and design automation algorithms.
Jean Francois Genat is a research engineer at CNRS/
IN2P3 Paris, France. He has been active in the field of electronics
and signal processing for High Energy Physics and Astrophysics
since 1975. He addressed in particular the problem of high
resolution time encoding introducing in 1984 digital delay lines
integrated in ASICs for the Large Electron Positron collider
experiments at CERN (Geneva, Switzerland), leading to large
scale sub-nanosecond timing systems. He is currently involved in
the readout of Micro-Channel Plate photo-detectors for which he
designs GHz sampling analog memories ASICs aiming to achieve
picosecond timing resolution.
4. Statistical Approaches to Tomographic Reconstruction - Arkadiusz Sitek
Statistical and iterative approaches are methods of choice used
for image reconstruction in emission tomography (ET) and are
gaining popularity in X-Ray computed tomography (CT). The
course will serve as an introduction to iterative and statistical
methods of image estimation in ET and CT from projection data.
The program of the course will cover fundamentals of medical
tomography and common iterative and Monte Carlo methods.
An introduction to general Bayesian methods in ET will also be
given.
Course Outline
- Image reconstruction in ET (Introduction to the statistical
description of the data. Algorithms: ML-EM, OS-EM, MAP, etc.)
- Image reconstruction in X-Ray CT (Iterative algorithms used
in image reconstruction).
- Bayesian statistical analysis of ET data (image creation,
estimation/classification tasks using the posterior probability and
Monte Carlo methods, Bayesian credible sets).
Prerequisite knowledge includes basics familiarity with the
physics of emission and transmission imaging systems, statistics,
and elementary algebra
Instructors
Bruno De Man earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees
in Electrical Engineering from the University of Leuven,
where he performed research in the areas of ultrasonic
tissue characterization (echocardiography) and CT iterative
reconstruction for metal artifact reduction. Bruno joined GE
Global Research in June 2001 and performed research in the
areas of cone-beam reconstruction, iterative reconstruction, and
multi-source inverse-geometry CT, among other projects. He is
currently managing the CT Systems and Applications Laboratory
at GE Global Research.
Johan Nuyts is research professor in the Department
of Nuclear Medicine of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven,
Belgium. He received his Ph.D. in applied sciences in 1991on the
subject of image reconstruction and quantification in SPECT. His
research interests include iterative reconstruction in PET, SPECT
and CT. Ongoing research projects focus on some multimodal
imaging problems in PET/CT and PET/MRI, polychromatic
CT reconstruction, multi-pinhole SPECT imaging, and motion
Arkadiusz Sitek is an assistant professor of Radiology
at the Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s
Hospital in Boston. He received his M.S. degree in physics
in 1994 from the University of Warsaw and Ph.D. in physics
from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C. in
1998. Arek’s main research interests in medical imaging include
applications of statistics, high¬-performance computing, medical
data visualization, and quantitation.
5. Kinetic Modeling
- Richard Carson
This 1-day course is designed for anyone who would like to gain
a better understanding of the principles involved in PET kinetic
modeling and analysis. It is appropriate for physicists, physicians,
graduate students and researchers with a range of backgrounds.
This course is an abbreviated version of a 2.5 day course given
annually by a group of experts in PET pharmacokinetic modeling.
Course Outline
- Basic Kinetic Modeling Principles
- Basic Pharmacological Principles
- Single- and Two-Tissue Compartment Models
- Blood Flow and FDG Models
- Neuroreceptor Modeling
- Reference Tissue Approaches and Modeling
- Simplified Approaches Including Linear Methods and Steady-
- State Principles
Instructors Richard E. Carson is Professor of Biomedical Engineering
and Diagnostic Radiology at Yale University. He is Director of
the Yale PET Center and is Director of Graduate Studies in
Biomedical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA in
1983 in Biomathematics., and from then until 2005, Dr. Carson was
an integral part of the PET program at the National Institutes of
Health, rising to the rank of Senior Scientist. His research focus
is the development and application of mathematical techniques
for the study of human beings and non-human primates with
PET. Dr. Carson has published over 160 papers in peer-reviewed
journals and given over 80 invited lectures.
Roger N. Gunn is Director of Molecular Imaging Analysis
at GSK where he is leading the application of PET imaging to
drug development. He did his undergraduate degree in applied
mathematics at the University of Warwick before completing a
PhD in the bio-mathematical modelling of PET data at the MRC
Cyclotron Unit (London, UK). He left the MRC to take up a faculty
position at McGill University where he worked at the Montreal
Neurological Institute before joining GSK in 2003. He holds
Visiting Professorships at Oxford University (Dept Engineering
Science) and Imperial College (Division of Neuroscience and
Mental Health) and has published over 100 peer reviewed journal
articles in the field of imaging.
Adriaan A. Lammertsma studied experimental physics
at the State University Groningen. He has been involved in
PET since 1979 when he moved to the MRC Cyclotron Unit,
Hammersmith Hospital in London, UK. In 1984, he received his
PhD in Medicine from the University of London on the use of
PET for measuring blood flow and oxygen metabolism. With
the exception of a one-year sabbatical leave at UCLA, he stayed
at Hammersmith Hospital until the end of 1996. He then moved
to the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, where he
is now head of the Department of Nuclear Medicine & PET
Research and professor of Positron Emission Tomography. He
has published over 250 peer reviewed papers.
Julie C. Price received a B.S. in physics and M.S. in medical
physics from the University of Wisconsin. Her doctoral (Johns
Hopkins University, Radiological Health Sciences) and postdoctoral
(NIH PET Dept.) training focused on kinetic modeling
and quantitative PET methods. She joined the University of
Pittsburgh in 1994 and is currently Professor of Radiology and
Biostatistics and Head of PET methodology. Her PET research
includes novel tracer evaluation and assessment of brain function
in neurodegeneration, aging, and psychiatric disorders. Recent
research has focused on the development and application of
methods for PET amyloid imaging.
Jörg van den Hoff is Professor of Positron Emission
Tomography at the medical faculty of the Technical University
Dresden and head of the Department of Positron Emission
Tomography in the Institute of Radiopharmacy of the Helmholtz-
Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). He obtained his PhD in
experimental nuclear physics in 1991 at the University of Bonn,
and subsequently joined the PET center in the Department of
Nuclear Medicine at the Medical School Hannover. In 2002, he
took his current position in Dresden. Besides a continuing interest
in tracer kinetic modeling, the group of Prof. van den Hoff is
working at algorithms and procedures for improved quantitative
imaging such as event-based movement correction and reliable
volumetric evaluation of PET investigations, especially for
radiation treatment planning.
6. Statistical Approaches to Medical Image Analysis
- Juan Domingo Gispert
The course is aimed to presenting the basic aspects of medical
image analysis based on statistical methods. The course will
cover the mathematical background of image coregistration
and fusion along with clinical applications, image classification,
voxelwise statistical image analysis, practical examples of image
processing artifacts and, finally, a critical lecture on neuroimaging
analysis. The course is suited for anyone willing to gain a basic
knowledge on standard statistical imaging processing, analysis
and quantification techniques. Course prerequisites are basic
algebra, basic knowledge on medical imaging modalities. Basic
knowledge on statistics is recommended but not required.
Course Outline
- Medical image coregistration. Javier Pascau.
- Clinical applications of image fusion. Uwe Pietrzyk.
- Medical image preprocessing artifacts. Carles Falcon.
- Basic statistical neuroimaging analysis. Juan D. Gispert
- Image classification methods. Lars Kai Hansen.
- Critical overview of neuroimaging analysis methods. Manuel
Desco
Instructors
Javier Pascau is professor of Medical Imaging Techniques at
the Carlos III University of Madrid and holds an appointment as
researcher at the Laboratory of Medical Imaging of the Gregorio
Marañón Hospital in Madrid, Spain. He received his education as
engineer at the Technical University of Madrid were the received
his PhD in 2005 and a Master’s degree on Biomedical Techniques
and Instrumentation the same year. His main research interests
are clinical and preclinical multimodal image coregistration and
fusion.
Uwe Pietzyk is a Professor of Experimental Physics at
the University of Wuppertal, Department of Mathematics and
Natural Sciences and holds an appointment as group leader in the
Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine (INM-4) at the Research
Center Juelich, Germany, since 1999. He received his education in
particle physics at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, since 1977, got
his PhD in 1984, but moved to medical imaging physics in 1987,
working at the Max-Planck Institute of Neurological Research.
The main research topics are multimodal / hybrid imaging, image
registration, image fusion and in the field of simulating medical
imaging devices. His group also made essential contributions to
the development of Polarized Light Imaging (PLI). He is member
of the Crystal Clear and of the OpenGATE Collaboration and
has co-authored more then 80 peer reviewed papers in the field
medical imaging.
Carles Falcon is professor at the Barcelona University and
holds an appointment as group leader of the Medical Imaging
Platform of IDIBAPS and Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, Spain.
He received his education at the University of Barcelona where
he received his PhD in physics in 1998. His main research interest
is functional neuroimaging.
Juan Domingo Gispert is professor of Biomedical
Imaging Techniques at the Pompeu Fabra University and holds
an appointment as coordinator of the Neuroimaging Platform
of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation in Barcelona, Spain. He
received his education as engineer at the Technical University
of Barcelona and a Master’s degree on Biomedical Techniques
and Instrumentation and a PhD at the Technical University of
Madrid in 2004. His main research interests are m¬olecular
imaging acquisition and processing.
Lars Kai Hansen is full professor and Head of the section
‘Cognitive Systems’ at the Informatics Department of the
Technical University of Denmark. He received his PhD in physics
in 1986 by the University of Copenhagen, and his main research
interests are machine learning, neuroinformatics, neuroimaging
and neural networks.
Manuel Desco is full professor and Head of the
Bioengineering and Aeronautics Engineering of the Carlos
III University of Madrid, Spain. He received his education as
nuclear medicine physician at the Universidad Complutense and
as engineer at the Technical University of Madrid. His main
research interests are molecular imaging instrumentation and
processing.
7. Physics and Design of Detectors for SPECT and PET
- Nicola Belcari
This one-day course is intended to introduce physicists and
engineers to the fundamentals of PET and SPECT technology
and detector design with focus on high resolution systems,
electronic design and hybrid systems. A basic knowledge of
detectors and electronics is assumed.
Course Outline
The course will be organized in four sessions with basics and
advanced topics.
Basics: This part will cover the basics of detector design for
PET and SPECT. Starting with current status of technology,
attendees will be introduced to recent advances on high resolution
detectors for PET to advanced multi pin-hole systems for ultrahigh
resolution SPECT. In particular, specific topics covered are:
- Physics of PET
- Spatial resolution and noise issues in PET
- Instrumentation for high resolution PET imaging
- Physics of SPECT
- Advanced pinhole imaging
- Detectors for high resolution SPECT
Advanced topics: This part will cover recent developments in
two research topics: the new generation of acquisition systems
for PET and SPECT and the latest advances on hybrid imaging.
Advanced topics include:
- Acquisition systems for PET and SPECT
- Timing issues for next generation TOF PET systems
- Fully digital acquisition systems for PET/SPECT
- Hybrid imaging
- From (S)PET/CT to (S)PET/MRI
- Advanced detectors for (S)PET/MRI
Instructors:
Nicola Belcari is Assistant Professor at the Department
of Physics “E. Fermi” of the University of Pisa. He received his
Ph.D. degree in applied physics in 2003 on the subject of Positron
Emission Mammography. His present research interests are in
the field of instrumentation for PET and SPECT with a special
focus on small animal imaging and in-beam PET monitoring
systems in hadron therapy. He collaborated to the development
of a small animal scanner with PET/SPECT capabilities and a
variable resolution microCT system. Dr. Belcari holds 2 patents
in animal imaging techniques and has authored or co-authored
more than 50 papers in medical imaging.
Pedro Guerra is Research Scientist at the Electronic
Engineering Department of the Universidad Politécnica
de Madrid. In 2007, He received his Ph.D. degree in
Telecommunication Engineering from the Universidad
Politécnica de Madrid, Spain, for his studies on the application
of digital signal processing techniques in gamma-ray
detectors. His present research interests are in the field of PET
instrumentation and intraoperative radiotherapy. He is currently
active in the development of a small animal scanner with PET/
CT capabilities. Dr. Guerra holds 2 patents with application to
small animal molecular imaging and has authored or co-authored
more than 30 scientific papers, including journals and conference
proceedings.
Prof. Dr. Sibylle Ziegler received her PhD in physics from
the University of Mainz (Germany) in 1989. After a postdoctoral
fellowship at the German Cancer Center in Heidelberg and
the Hammersmith Hospital in London, she joined the Nuclear
Medicine Department at the Technische Universität München in
1993. Her research is focused on nuclear medical instrumentation
and data analysis with an emphasis on multimodal imaging.
Dr. Marlies Goorden received her PhD in theoretical
nanophysics at Leiden University (The Netherlands) in 2005.
After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Geneva, she
joined the molecular imaging group of Prof. Dr. F. Beekman at
Delft University of Technology and University Medical Center
Utrecht. Her research focuses on theoretical aspects of Single
Photon Emission Tomography (SPECT) imaging, including
the improvement of image reconstruction methods and the
optimization of SPECT geometries.
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