Award Fernando Hueso González, from IFIC, receives the Bruce H. Hasegawa Young Investigator Medical Imaging Science Award

Fernando Hueso González, CIDEGENT researcher at the Corpuscular Physics Institute (IFIC, UV-CSIC), has received the Bruce H. Hasegawa Young Investigator Medical Imaging Science Award 2022 for his career in the field of Medical Imaging. The award is given annually by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) through the Nuclear Medical and Imaging Sciences Technical Committee (NMISTC).

Fernando Hueso’s work focuses mainly on improving precision with which cancer treatments with proton therapy are administered. Thanks to the development of radiation detectors with high resolution, it is possible to verify in real time and millimetric precision that the proton beam is pointing to the correct place - the tumour - which avoids collateral damage to surrounding healthy tissues. Other of his research lines are the optimisation of dosimetry in brachytherapy and the prevention of collisions between the machine and the patient in radiotherapy.

These awards are convened annually and the candidates are judged on the basis of their contribution to the science of medical imaging, demonstrated by their technical merit and the creativity of their research. Priority is given to nominees whose research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, especially if the nominee is the first author. The prize consists of 1500 $ and a plaque that was given during the " 2022 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, Medical Imaging Conference".

Fernando Hueso González studied the Master of Advanced Physics at the University of Valencia in 2011-2012. The following four years he studied at the protontherapy centre of the Technische Universität Dresden (OncoRay), where he performed the doctorate in real-time monitoring of therapy, using fast gamma rays. Later, he worked as a postdoc at Massachusetts General Hospital to transform a ’laboratory’ gamma spectrometer into a clinical prototype for first application with patients. He is currently continuing his research on the IFIC under the GenT program (GVA).