IPEM members in the news

IPEM members can be in the news for a variety of reasons - winning an award, presenting work to a panel of MPs, being honoured for their services to their profession, or being interviewed by the media about some aspect of their work. On this page we feature some of those members who have been in the news for a variety of reasons.

2020

November

The International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM) represents the combined efforts of over 150,000 medical physicists and engineers globally. IUPESM is a Full Member to the International Science Council (ISC).

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, IUPESM has named 40 Inaugural Fellows, including 9 IPEM members. They are amongst the most prominent international leaders of the profession, recognised for their outstanding contribution to the international development of Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine. We congratulate them all and their families:

Prof Alun H. Beddoe
Prof Keith Boddy (posthumous) 
Prof Stephen Keevil 
Prof John Mallard
Prof Peter Smith
Prof KY Cheung (Hong Kong)
Prof Slavik Tabakov  
Prof Joe Barbenel  
Prof Leandro Pecchia

Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine and Worshipful Company of Scientific Makers: 2020 Essay Prize result
We are delighted to announce that the winner of the inaugural 2020 prize is James Bezer, a student at Imperial College London.

The prize was open to members of IPEM and WCSIM in the early stages of their careers. The essay was a maximum of 1,000 words and had to be written to be understood by members of the general public. The subject of the inaugural prize was:   Innovation and Communication: Scientific Instrumentation Improving Patient Outcomes.

James will receive a prize of £500 and a Gold Medal. His essay will be published in SCOPE, IPEM's quarterly magazine and on the websites of both organisations.

 

August

Professor Zhanfeng Cui, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Oxford, was awarded a President's Special Award for Pandemic Service from the Royal Academy of Engineering for developing a test to see if person infected with Covid-19 is still infectious.

March

Member Mark Westby, Head of Medical Equipment Services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, gave an interview to the Guardian newspaper about the impact Covid-19 was having on his department.

Fellows Professor Stephen O'Connor, IPEM President, Professor Mark Tooley, Immediate Past President, and Dr George Dempsey, Vice President Engineering, provided expert reaction to the Science Media Centre on work by UCL, UCLH and Formula One in developing Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) breathing devices in response to the Covid-19 crisis.

January

Three IPEM members provided expert reaction to the Science Media Centre on a study looking at low doses of radiation in medical imaging and mutations in cell cultures. Fellow Professor Malcolm Sperrin, Head of Physics at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Fellow Jim Thurston, Head of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry Service at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, and David Dommett, Consultant Clinical Scientist at Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and chair of the Society of Radiological Protection’s Medical Committee, responded to this.

2019

December

Andy Rogers, the Past President of the British Institute of Radiology, was awarded the BIR’s Distinguished Service Medal for his contribution to the activities of the organisation.  

November

Dr Dimitra Darambara, team leader, Multimodality Molecular Imaging in the Department of Physics at the Institute of Cancer Research, the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, was the recipient of the Philips Award from the Institute of Physics for her work in raising the profile of medical physics.

Professor John Crowe, a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Nottingham, was part of the team to be awarded the Colin Campbell Mitchell Award by the Royal Academy of Engineering for developing the world’s first wireless foetal monitor.

October

Ahmar Iqbal, an Associate Member and a third year Level 3 Engineering Apprentice with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, won the Health, Medical and Social Care category at the Asian Apprenticeship awards.

September

Gold Medal and Early Career awards were presented to IPEM members who have made outstanding contributions in their field of work at MPEC 2019 in Bristol. The Gold Medal and Early Career awards are for members who have made outstanding contributions in academia, innovation and healthcare, and in recognition of the achievements of early career members. The recipients were: Dr Huda Al-Naemi, Professor Andy Beavis, Professor Panicos Kyriacou, Dr Emmanuel Akinluyi, and Dr Bilal Tahir. Other prizes and awards were also presented at MPEC and you can read more about them here.

IPEM member Haris Shuaib, a Clinical Scientist at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London, became one of 17 digital fellows with Health Education England’s Topol Programme for Digital Fellowships in Healthcare. This aims to support NHS organisations to invest in clinical staff to develop specialist digital skills and to learn about leading digital transformation

Some 11 female IPEM members were admitted to a new leadership programme, the CSOWISE Healthcare Sciencce Leadership Development Programme for NHS England. They made up a third of all those admitted on to the programme. They were:

• Rachael Andrews, Clinical Scientist, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Ekaterina Aristovich, Clinical Scientist, Radiological Physics and Radiation Safety, Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust
• Sarah Bartram, Clinical Scientist, Radiotherapy (Medical Physics), South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Karen Gannon, Deputy Head of Radiation Protection & Imagining Physics, Nuclear Medicine, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Jodie Hampel, Senior Radiation Physicist, Radiation Protection and Imaging Physics, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Claire Hooker, Principal Physicist, Department of Nuclear Medicine, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
• Dr Victoria Kidgell, Clinical Scientist, Rehabilitation Engineering, Specialist Scientific Physiological Services, Department of Medical Physics & Clinical Engineering, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Dr Sarah McQuaid, Principal Clinical Scientist, Medical Physics (Nuclear Medicine), Institute of Nuclear Medicine, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Rebecca Quest, Acting Head of Magnetic Resonance Physics, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
• Sarah Ward, Clinical Scientist, Rehabilitation Engineering, Chailey Clinical Services, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
• Sarah Whitbourn, Principal Clinical Scientist, Medical Physics, Clinical Measurement, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

July

IPEM Fellow Professor David Hawkes, a director at the Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, was awarded the inaugural Peter Mansfield Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics for his contribution to physics.

Dr Viv Cosgrove, Head of Radiotherapy Physics at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, presented further evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Radiotherapy inquiry at the House of Commons.

Dr Heather Williams, Principal Medical Physicist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, and IPEM Fellow Jim Thurston, Head of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry Service at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, provided expert reaction to the Science Media Centre on a study looking at radioactive iodine treatment for overactive thyroid and risk of cancer.

June

Dr Viv Cosgrove, Head of Radiotherapy Physics at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, presented evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Radiotherapy inquiry at the House of Commons.

April

IPEM Fellow Professor Malcolm Sperrin, Head of Physics at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, appeared on the BBC One programme 'Health: Truth or Scare' to debunk some of the claims about mobile phones giving rise to brain tumours.

March

Three members were made Honorary Fellows of the Academy for Healthcare Science:

• Professor David Brettle, immediate Past President of the Institute, and Head of Medical Physics and Engineering at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
• Theresa Fail, a vascular scientist at University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust
• Michael Thomas, principal radiotherapy physicist at the Institute of Cancer Research at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

Three members were recognised at the 2019 NHS Healthcare Science Awards:

• Professor Mark Tooley, IPEM’s President, was presented with the Healthcare Science Lifetime Achievement award
• Sofia Kordolaimi, a medical physicist at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, was named as one of the two Healthcare Science Rising Stars
• Ela Bardan, Deputy Head of Clinical Engineering at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, was part of the team who won the Excellence in Workforce Development award.

January

Professor David Brettle appeared on ITV Calendar at the launch of the Little Linac project at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to talk about the project. The story also featured seven-year-old William, from Huddersfield, who was undergoing radiotherapy treatment. The story also appeared in iNews, Metro and SWNS.

2018

December

Dr Leandro Pecchia, Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick, had his scientific paper 'Day-to-day variations in sleep quality affect standing balance in healthy adults' featured in Nature.

IPEM Fellow Dr David Gow CBE, the inventor of the i-Limb® prosthetic hand, received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Glasgow in recognition of his world renowned innovations in upper limb prosthetics. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1979 with a BSc (Honours) in Engineering Science. Last year IPEM awarded him the Innovation Gold Medal. 

November

Associate Member David Randall appeared in the November edition of Into The Void Science magazine, talking about realising the medical potential of virtual reality.

October

Joe O'Brien, a Clinical Scientist in nuclear medicine at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, won a Science Council CPD award.

September

Five members were announced as winners of two prestigious programmes run by NHS England. Dr Fiammetta Fedele, Dr Geoffrey Heyes and Dr John Thornton were among nine healthcare scientists selected for the Chief Scientific Officer’s (CSO) Knowledge Transfer Partnership Programme. Meanwhile Gail Distefano and Nana Odom were named as two of the four candidates for the CSO WISE Fellowships programme. You can read more about all of them here.

Gold Medal awards were presented to IPEM members who have made outstanding contributions in their field of work at MPEC 2018 at York Racecourse. The Gold Medal awards are for members who have made outstanding contributions in academia, innovation and healthcare, as well as recognition for the achievements of early career members. The winners were: Dr Martin Graves, Dr Colin Martin, Professor Daniel Clark, Dr Kate Ricketts, and Jim Daniel. You can read more about them here.

IPEM President, Professor Mark Tooley, and immediate Past President, Professor David Brettle, both gave media interviews during Members' Day at the MPEC 2018 conference in York. The interviews were about IPEM's charity concert to celebrate the NHS at 70 and to raise funds for the Little Linac project. Mark was interviewed for the mid-morning show on BBC Radio York and David was interviewed by That's TV York for their evening bulletin. The concert also appeared in the York Press.

August

IPEM Fellow Christopher Walker, head of radiotherapy physics at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, was featured on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle’s website talking about a new pioneering treatment plan which targets multiple tumours at the same time.

July

IPEM Fellow Professor Wendy Tindale was featured on BBC Look North (Yorkshire), talking about new technologies for remotely monitoring the health of nursing home residents, and providing advice to staff to reduce hospital admissions.

April

IPEM Fellow Dr Roger Staff, Head of Imaging Physics at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, was presented with the Norman Veall Medal, which is awarded annually by the British Nuclear Medicine Society Council to a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to the science and/or practice of nuclear medicine in the United Kingdom. 

March

Members swept the board at the annual Chief Scientific Officer's Healthcare Science Awards:

• Dr Keith Ison OBE, an IPEM Fellow and former President, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Dr Ranald Mackay, an IPEM Fellow and Director of Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, was named as the Healthcare Scientist of the Year.
• Professor Paul White, an IPEM Fellow and Head of Clinical Engineering at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, won the Excellence in Research award.
• Dr Jonathan Ashmore, of Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, and Dr Cormac McGrath, lead MRI Clinical Scientist for the Northern Ireland Regional Medical Physics Service, won the Innovation in Healthcare Delivery award.
• Dr Keith Langmack, a Fellow of the Institute and Head of Radiotherapy Physics at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, won the Equality and Diversity in Leadership award.
• Dr Daniel Clark, who is Head of Clinical Engineering at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, was presented with the Developing Partnerships to Improve Outcomes award.

IPEM Fellow Professor Malcolm Sperrin commented on the nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal, who were found unconscious in Salisbury. Professor Sperrin talked to the BBC and other media outlets about the symptoms of a nerve agent attack.

January

David Randall, a researcher at the University of Sheffield, was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about the virtual reality colonoscopy he had developed. You can see more on the VR colonoscopy on YouTube™ here.

Professor Paul White, a Fellow of the Institute, became one of five healthcare scientists to be appointed as part of NHS England's Clinical Entreprenuers Programme.

2017

November

Mark Worrall, a Radiation Protection Adviser at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, won the inaugural BIR/GE Healthcare Radiation Safety Travel Award for his work on the creation of a computational model to accurately estimate the thickness of an attenuator from a single digital radiograph.  He will present his work at the International Conference on Radiation Protection in Medicine: Achieving Change in Practice next month in Vienna, organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

October

Nigel Deshpande, a Clinical Scientist at Philips Healthcare, spoke to Marianne Elliott, the director of the play Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle, which is showing in London's West End, about scientific theory and his interview is featured in the show's programme.

September

Gold Medal awards were presented to IPEM members who have made outstanding contributions in their field of work at the MEIBioeng/MPEC conference at Sandown Park. The Gold Medal awards are for members who have made outstanding contributions in academia, innovation and healthcare, as well as recognition for the achievements of early career members. The winners were: Professor David Lurie, Dr Neil Lewis, Dr David Gow, Dr Tracy Underwood and Dr Mohammed Atari. You can read more about them here.

Professor Marco Viceconti, Chair of Biomechanics at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield and Executive Director of the Insigneo Institute at the university, was made an Honorary Fellow of IPEM at the MEIBioeng/MPEC conference.

Dr Jonathan Ashmore and Dr Cormac McGrath were presented with the Roy Ellis Patient Benefit award at the MEIBioeng/MPEC conference for the interactive app they have developed. This prepares children for MRI scans by creating a 360° virtual reality video of the entire MRI journey, from arriving at the department to undergoing the scan itself.  The winner of the Spiers' award for outreach, also made at the conference, was Elizabeth Kapasa.

 

Zoe Clarke, an Assistive Technology Clinical Scientist at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, was one of four recipients of the 2017 Chief Scientific Officer’s Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Fellowship scheme.

July

Trainee rehabilitation engineer Gary Cleall, employed by King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and who works in the Disablement Service Centre at the Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent, was selected to help support competitors at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London.

Dr Niall MacDougall, Head of Clinical Dosimetry at Barts Health NHS Trust, had his paper “In vivo dosimetry in UK external beam radiotherapy: current and future usage”featured in this year's edition of the Best of BJR.

June

IPEM Fellow Dr Colin Baker, Dr Jason Cashmore and IPEM’s Honorary Secretary Dr Bal Sanghera, were among the winners of the Chief Scientific Officer's first Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme.

Dr Lorna Tasker, Head of Rehabilitation Engineering at Morriston Hospital in Swansea, was named as one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering for 2017 in the United Kingdom, run by The Daily Telegraph in partnership with the Women’s Engineering Society and key employers in the industry.

IPEM Fellow Professor Tony Fisher, a consultant Clinical Scientist at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the University of Liverpool, was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to medical physics and clinical engineering.

May

Ian Paddick, consultant physicist with Medical Physics Ltd at Cromwell Hospital in London, was elected as President of the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society, becoming the first physicist to be appointed to the role.

Affiliate Member Alexis Dimitriadis, a PhD student at the University of Surrey, was presented with the Young Investigator Award at the  International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society Congress in Montreux. 

March

Members swept the board at the annual Chief Scientific Officer’s Healthcare Science Awards:

• Healthcare Scientist of the Year: IPEM Fellow Professor Paul White, Head of Clinical Engineering at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, for his work on the use of deceased circulatory donors (DCD) for heart transplantation.
• Dr Christopher Gibson, a former IPEM President, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Glafkos Havariyoun, a trainee Clinical Scientist at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London, won in the Healthcare Science Rising Stars category.
• The team at the Southbank University Technical College won the Science and Engineering Engagement Award, which was collected by IPEM Fellow Joanne Young.

Trainee Clinical Scientist Shaun Warrington, who works in the Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering Department at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, presented his research poster to parliamentarians at the STEM for Britain awards at Portcullis House in Westminster.

Professor Panayiotis Kyriacou, IPEM's Vice President Academic, was elected as the new President of the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering & Science.

February

Dr Jonathan Ashmore, a MRI physicist at King’s College Hospital in London, developed the My MRI at King’s application to help ease the fear of children – and their parents – who are attending for a scan. He was featured talking about the app on BBC Breakfast News and BBC Newsround.

Jim Thurston, Head of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, was interviewed for the national 'Future of Imaging' campaign, a supplement in the Guardian newspaper. 

2016

December

IPEM member Professor Paul Marsden, Professor of PET Physics and Director of PET Medical Physics at King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas' PET Centre, was awarded the inaugural John Mallard Award by the International Organization for Medical Physics.

October

Professor Tony Barker, an IPEM Fellow and the pioneer of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the brain, became the first recipient of the International Brain Stimulation Award by publisher Elsevier.

September

A new set of Gold Medal Awards were presented at MPEC:

• Professor David Bradley, of the Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Physics, University of Surrey, was presented with the Academic Gold Medal.
• Philip Cosgriff, Head of Nuclear Medicine for the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust in Boston, Lincolnshire, was awarded the Healthcare Gold Medal.
• Richard Axell, a Clinical Scientist working in clinical engineering innovation at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, was presented with the Academic Early Career Award.
• Ewan Eadie, Head of Scientific Services for Photobiology and Optical Radiation at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, was awarded the Healthcare Early Career Award. 
• Jonathan Taylor, a PhD student at the nuclear medicine department at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, was presented with the Innovation Early Career Award.

July

Consultant Clinical Scientist Dr Charlotte Kemp, Head of Clinical Measurement at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, was one of four recipients of the first Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Fellowship scheme set up by the Chief Scientific Officer for NHS England.

IPEM Fellow Professor Andy Beavis was awarded the Society of Radiographers Silver Medal for his contribution and services to Radiography, especially with regards to his promotion of multidisciplinary work and in education.

April

Trainee cardiac physiologist Stephanie Smith and her colleague Stuart Allen, of the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust, won the IPEM award in the Patients as Partners in Science category at the Advancing Healthcare Awards. 

March

The Chief Scientific Officer's Healthcare Scientist of the Year was IPEM Fellow Professor Wendy Tindale OBE, consultant Clinical Scientist and Scientific Director at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. Anthony Higgins, a Clinical Scientist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, won the Rising Star Award for Medical Physics and Engineering at the CSO awards.

January

Former IPEM President Professor Stephen Smye was awarded the OBE in the New Year's Honours List for services to healthcare research.

2015

November

WISE Award winners were: Jennifer Walsh-O'Donovan, of NHS Lothian, who won the Hero Award for her work as a Clinical Scientist and rehabilitation bioengineer in the Southeast Mobility and Rehabilitation Technology Centre in Edinburgh, and Stephany Baladas, an assistant clinical technologist apprentice at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, who won the Girl Award for achievements by a girl under 18 whose passion for science and technology inspires others.

April

Matthew Dunn, Head of Radiology Physics at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, won a special Public Engagement Award at the Chief Scientific Officer's Healthcare Science Awards for his outreach work.

Michelle Hughes (Macmillan patient information and support radiographer) and Victoria Sykes (team leader radiographer), Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust won the IPEM award in the Patients as Partners in Science category at the Advancing Healthcare Awards.  

2014