Anna Celler
 |
Ph.D. - Physics, Physics Department, University of Warsaw, Poland. 1980.
M.Sc. - Physics, Physics Department, University of Warsaw, Poland. 1974. |
Memberships
Fellow, Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine,
Member, Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists
Member, Society of Nuclear Medicine,
Member, IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society,
Member, Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine.
Positions
Head, Medical Imaging Research Group,
Associate Professor, Department of Radiology, University
of British Columbia,
Associate Member, Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of British Columbia,
Physicist, Division of Nuclear Medicine, Vancouver Hospital
and Health Sciences Centre.
Current Research
For several years I was involved in low and medium energy
nuclear physics research in various laboratories around Europe (Poland, Finland,
France and Germany) and in Canada (TRIUMF). In 1991 I changed my area of
interest from "pure" nuclear physics to medical physics. I began working
in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at VHHSC, initiated a research program
in medical imaging and established the Medical Imaging Research Group.
The research program of the group is aimed at the development of simple,
practical and clinically relevant methods for SPECT quantitation, dynamic
SPECT imaging and automatic data analysis. We are also interested in other
imaging techniques. My previous experience in nuclear physics research,
present involvement in both quality assurance, and everyday problem solving
in the nuclear medicine department and in applied medical physics research
provides a very distinct practical aspect to all the activities of the
group.
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Ronald Harrop
 |
Ph.D. - Mathematical Logic, University of Cambridge, England. 1953.
M.A. - Mathematics, University of Cambridge, England. 1950.
B.A. - Mathematics, University of Cambridge, England. 1946. |
Memberships
Association for Symbolic Logic
American Mathematical Society
Canadian Mathematical Congress
Association for Computing Machinery
Canadian Information Processing Society
(ISP - Information Systems Professional
- retd.)
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
Society of Nuclear Medicine
Positions
Research Scientist, Radiology Department, VHHSC
Emeritus Professor, Mathematics Department, SFU
Emeritus Professor, School of Computing Science, SFU
Honorary Professor, Radiology Department. UBC
Current Research
I have for many years, as a retiree, been an active though
part-time volunteer member of MIRG. I have assisted, at Dr.Celler's request,
with the supervision of students, and been involved in general discussions
related to the overall planning and implementation of many of the research
projects, especially those connected directly to the quantitative
dynamic SPECT project. This involvement is continuing though not to the
same extent as it did in earlier years.
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Stephan Blinder
 |
Ph.D. - Astrophysics, Observatoire de l'Universite de Bordeaux I,
France. 1997.
M.Sc. - Physics, Universite de Bordeaux I, France. 1992.
Ph.D. Subject : "Modelisation de l'emission moleculaire en raies millimetriques
des sources protostellaires" (Modelling Protostellar Emission in Millimeter
Molecular Lines), 1997, Ph.D Thesis, Universite de Bordeaux I. The aim of this thesis was to model protostellar emission
in millimeter molecular lines and in dust continuum with the purpose of
interpreting real observations made with single dish radiotelescopes and
interferometers as well as making theoretical predictions. The numerical
tool that solves the radiative transfer equation in spherical and axisymmetric
protostellar models using a Monte-Carlo procedure was mainly applied to
the study of infall signature.
|
Position
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Radiology, University
of British Columbia.
Current Research
I joined MIRG group in September 1999. My main study interests are oriented towards absolute
quantitation in both SPECT and dSPECT. To this end I've developed a
method for 2D and 3D detector response compensation with attenuation
correction. This method is applied to a 2D/3D reconstruction procedure
using EM/OSEM/RBI-EM algorithms. At the present time it is also applied to
a 2D dSPECT reconstruction algorithm and we are working on its implementation
to fully 3D dSPECT. I'm also involved in the MIRG group projects on medical
applications of the dSPECT method, i.e. renal studies and cardiac studies using
teboroxime.
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Kat Dixon
 |
Ph.D. Candidate - Physics & Astronomy Department, University of British Columbia. Current.
Postgraduate Diploma - Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine,
U.K. 1999.
M.Sc. - Medical Physics, University of Exeter, U.K. 1998.
B.Sc. - Physics, University of Edinburgh, U.K. 1996. |
Memberships
Chartered Physicist, UK
State Registered Clinical Scientist, UK
Member of the Institute of Physics, UK
Graduate member of the Institute of Physics and Engineering
in Medicine, UK
Position
PhD graduate student, Department of Physics and
Astronomy, University of British Columbia.
Current Research
Having spent the last three years working as a Clinical Physicist
in the Nuclear Medicine Department of a U.K. teaching hospital, my aim
is to use the work done by MIRG on quantitative SPECT, in a clinical
environment. I am investigating the improvement in accuracy made possible by
the use of quantitative SPECT in the calculation of internal
dosimetry.
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Zheng Chang
 |
M.Sc. Candidate - Physics & Astronomy Department, University of British Columbia. Current.
B.Sc. - Physics Department, Shandong University, P.R.China. 2000. |
Position
MSc graduate student, Department of Physics and
Astronomy, University of British Columbia.
Current Research
The attenuation of photons is one of the major problems affecting
SPECT imaging quality and speed. My goal in this project to improve
the reconstruction of attenuation maps which will lead to more accurate
SPECT images. I hope to be able to find a new method to get much better
attenuation maps in a shorter time. To aid my project, I use the
MCAT phantom and the SIMSET Monte Carlo simulation code to model the physical
processes and instrumentation used in emission and transmission imaging.
Using the data generated through these simulation experiments, I will compare
different methods.
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Eric Vandervoort
 |
M.Sc. Candidate - Physics & Astronomy Department, University of British Columbia. Current.
B.Sc. - Physics (major), Mathematics (minor), University of Guelph. 2000.
|
Position
MSc graduate student, Department of Physics and
Astronomy, University of British Columbia.
Current Research
My current project involves the development of iterative
techniques for the absolute quantitative evaluation of radiotracer concentrations
in SPECT. This will require a patient specific, physics based technique
to accurately account for the effects of attenuation, collimator blurring
and scatter. The focus of this work will be to employ a physics based scatter
correction in an iterative reconstruction algorithm. We will use the computed
analytic scattered photon distribution method, as developed by Dr. Glenn
Wells, in which the scatter contribution is directly calculated from Klein-Nishina
based formulae. To validate the results we will compare computer simulated
phantoms and experimental data obtained from physical phantoms, with Monte
Carlo simulations. Specifically, the execution time, consistency between
a wide range of patient specifications, and accuracy of quantitation of
radiotracer concentrations will be evaluated.
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Michala Weisensee
 |
Diplom candidate - Computer Visualization, Department of Computer Science,
University of Magdeburg, Germany. Current.
Vordiplom - Computer Visualization, Department of Computer Science,
University of Magdeburg, Germany. 2001.
|
Position
Internship Student, Department of Computer Science, University of Magdeburg.
Current Research
In many clinical applications reorientation of a given data set is required.
In our case, dSPECT images of the heart need to be reorientated to visualize the organ in the
appropriate way. As there is an interpolation step during the rotatiion operation, it is possible to
loose important information. In my project, I am examining and comparing different existing
interpolation methods and their effects. The goal is to find the method that is best suited to our
dSPECT data.
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Brian MacLean
 |
B.Sc. Candidate - Computer Science Department, University of British Columbia. Current.
B.Sc. - Physics, University of British Columbia. 1993.
|
Position
Undergraduate student, Computer Science Department, University of British Columbia.
Current Research
I am working on modifying a graphical user interface that implements a dynamic mathematical
cardiac torso (dMCAT) model. The interface needs to be changed so that it only accepts parameters that are consistent
with what we know of compartmental model kinetics. Later in the summer, I will work on implimenting a similar
dynamic model for the Hoffman brain.
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Michael Weatherby
 |
B.A.Sc. Candidate - Engineering Physics: Electrical Engineering option.
University of British Columbia. Current.
|
Position
Undergraduate co-op student, Engineering Physics, University of British Columbia.
Current Research
I am working with sets of clinical projection data of the heart, to analyze
and compare the performance of iterative reconstruction techniques. These techniques involve
patient specific attenuation correction and detector response compensation in two or three
dimensions.
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