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Award for physics PhD researcher

30 November 2005

PhD researcher Mr Jeff Crosbie from the School of Physics was awarded the Varian prize at the Engineering and Physical Sciences in Medicine conference held in Adelaide recently.

The prize, sponsored to the value of $1000 by medical company Varian, was awarded to Mr Crosbie for his oral presentation on synchrotron microbeam radiation therapy.

Mr Crosbie said his research investigated using synchrotron radiation for therapeutic purposes.

"We are at a very experimental stage at the moment, but synchrotron radiation has been mooted as a possible treatment for paediatric brain tumours as they are particularly resistant to conventional radiation treatment," Mr Crosbie said.

"We still need to gain a better understanding of the biology behind this synchrotron technology, which splits the X-ray field so the X-rays are delivered non-uniformly to the tissue."

Only two other groups in the world, from France and the US, are using this experimental technology.

Mr Crosbie, who joined Monash this year to complete his PhD under the supervision of Professor Rob Lewis, said he was thrilled to receive the award.

"It is quite a prestigious prize and past winners have gone on to grand things, so I am very honoured," he said.

Mr Crosbie shares his time between Monash and the William Buckland Radiotherapy Centre at The Alfred hospital. He also works closely on the Microbeam project with Associate Professor Peter Rogers from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

About 350 delegates from around the country attended the four-day conference. International speakers and leading figures in radiobiology ad radiotherapy discussed topics ranging from practical laboratory work to clinical research.