Access Keys:
Access Keys:
Medical and security industries to benefit from nuclear physics research
“For us, Pathways to Impact has not changed what we do in terms of impact activities. It has just meant we have had to document what we do. Luckily, we weren’t embarrassed to write it down as we realised we actually already do a lot.” – Ian Lazarus, STFC Daresbury Laboratory
When your main role is to provide technical and engineering support to physicists, it is sometimes difficult to see how your work can have an impact beyond this highly specialised community. But Ian Lazarus and his colleagues at the Nuclear Physics Group (NPG) at the STFC Daresbury Laboratory have done just that.
The NPG’s principal role is to provide scientific, technical and engineering expertise to support and co-ordinate the programme of research and projects funded by STFC in the field of nuclear physics. This programme is carried out at a number of overseas accelerator facilities and requires the design, construction and installation of specialised equipment at those facilities.
It was during the development of one particular piece of equipment for gamma ray tracking that Lazarus and his colleagues realised the technology could have a medical and security applications.
“We went to a program launch event organised by the then Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) and they organised what essentially were speed dating sessions between industry and academia,” says Lazarus. “This is where we met some industrial partners who were interested in our technology.” While this initial meeting did not result in a funded project, it evolved into another project.
Now NPG has a collaboration with the University of Liverpool to develop next-generation single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging. This technology is set to revolutionize the medical imaging process, improving future diagnosis of cancer and the probability of successful cancer therapy whilst enabling a higher throughput of patients in hospitals.
Today both the NPG and Liverpool have a number of industrial links related to applications on nuclear measurement techniques and instrumentation. These have resulted in several collaborative projects and Lazarus and his colleagues hold regular meetings to identify new projects and areas of knowledge exchange.
“These new projects not only mean that our research will have a wider impact than we at first imagined, they also create new revenue stream for us by opening up new sources of funding,” says Lazarus. “Many of these collaborations started at networking events.”
Successes such as these have inspired Lazarus participate in more networks or networking events. “Not everyone in the group enjoys networking, so we don’t expect everyone in the group do it,” says Lazarus. “It is important to identify what people are good at and let them do those tasks.”
For example, while Lazarus is comfortable networking with industrial and academic collaborators, when it comes to public engagement and working with schools, he leaves that to the experts. Daresbury benefits from a Science in Society group which organises public engagement activities on behalf of the whole lab. “We get around 3000 school children through our doors every year,” says Lazarus. ““For us, Pathways to Impact has not changed what we do in terms of impact activities. It has just meant we have had to document what we do. Luckily, we weren’t embarrassed to write it down as we realised we actually already do a lot.”
Institution: Nuclear Physics Group (NPG) at the STFC Daresbury Laboratory
Funding council: STFC
Links
ProSPECTus page
Find out more about RCUK's International activities and
Overseas Teams:
Explore our funding using the RCUK Gateway to Research