Alicia Cavan
Position
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Student
Qualifications
BSc(Hons)Room
813, Physics and Astronomy
Contact Details
Phone: +64 3 364 2987
Internal Phone: 7587
Email: alicia.cavan@pg.canterbury.ac.nz
Thesis
Pseudo-calorimetric dosimetry for Microbeam Radiotherapy (MRT) based on optical interference.
Supervisor: Dr Juergen Meyer
Research Profile
Alicia Cavan received a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Physics from the University of Canterbury, and began studying towards a PhD at UC in March 2010. Alicia's research topic is to investigate a novel dosimetry method for measuring radiation used for microbeam radiation therapy. Microbeam radiotherapy is an exciting new development where a synchrotron [large particle accelerator, about the size of a football field] is used to create the x-rays that can irradiate tumour cells while sparing healthy tissue much more than standard cancer treatments. However the microbeams are very tiny, very intense x-ray beams which are difficult to measure with conventional means, yet safe treatment requires very accurate knowledge of the beam characteristics.
Alicia's approach to this dosimetry problem is based on an optical interferometry method. This is where light from a laser is passed through a water cell and then interfered to create a pattern which is recorded by a camera. If the water cell is irradiated, it will heat up according to how much radiation is absorbed, and this can be detected by the change in the interference pattern. With the correct image processing algorithms, it is possible to work backwards to obtain a reconstructed image of what the radiation absorbed dose profile looks like.
Alicia is concurrently working as a medical physics registrar at Christchurch Hospital, to attain the clinical experience required to become a fully qualified medical physicist.