Dr. Serena Psoroulas is a particle physicist by training (PhD 2012, University of Bonn and CERN), working at the Centre for Proton Therapy of PSI since 2012. Since 2015 she has been focusing on lowering the treatment time in proton irradiations, for both moving targets and FLASH treatments. She is currently responsible for the Gantry 1 FLASH beamline, where experiments with external users (CHUV, Varian Medical Systems, EMPA) are regularly performed, and is currently PI of two projects on ultra-fast proton treatments in a clinical setting.

Prof. Kirkby’s interest in Ion Beams and their applications spans over 30 years and developed from an interest in radiation damage in  materials into the field of radiation damage in living cells and tissues and its application to advanced radiotherapy.  In the mid 2000 she was involved in 2 projects funded by Research Councils UK aimed at developing next generation accelerators, one LIBRA used laser accelerators and the other CONFORM led to the development of an electron NS-FFAG and a design study of an FFAG based around protons.  These two grants went on to provide the basis for a successful application to EPSRC for a Centre for Doctoral Training Centre in Applications of Next Generation Accelerators.

Prof. Kirkby also worked with colleagues at Surrey to develop the Ion Beam Centre at Surrey into an internationally recognized center of excellence in the applications of ion beams.  She has international collaborations with the Medical Applications group at CERN and sits on their collaboration board.  She also works closely with the Acoustics and Ionising radiation division at the National Physical Laboratory and Chairs the PPRIG (Proton Physics Research and Implementation Group) .  She is also a member of Work Stream 4 for NCRI Clinical and Translational Radiotherapy Research (CTRad) Working Group.