Ian Postuma

Background

About Ian Postuma

Ionising radiation is everywhere! Don't be afraid, but we are surrounded by things we don't see. To complicate things, this invisible ionising radiation interacts with biological matter. Since there are many kinds of radiation and biological tissues, I focussed on the worst kind of radiation: Neutrons. With this kind of particle in mind, the most active researchers are in the field of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). As a physics student I developed a technique to see and count tracks of particles coming from thermal neutrons interacting with boron-10 atoms. Since then, I've worked on many aspects of BNCT, gaining expertise in areas such as: Ionising radiation simulation, Radiobiological experiments, Medical imaging, Deep learning and computer vision. This brings us to 2019, when I proposed the IT-STARTS research project, which was financed by INFN in Italy. Here we manages to study the effects of radiation on in-vitro skin tissue samples and improve the dosimetry of radiobiological experiments. Which is now being inserted in a ionising radiation simulation toolkit. Being PI of a 3 year multidisciplinary project improved my soft and management skills. And gave me the opportunity to share knowledge with researchers in: Argentina, China, England, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Spain and Taiwan. Lately (since October 2020), I've embarked in a side project of the INFN Artificial Intelligence in Medicine group. Where we developed a deep learning tool that contours lung infections in COVID19 patients.