Joao Seco

Completion date: 2002

Division: Radiotherapy and Imaging

Joao is a great example of the diversity of science that is practiced at the ICR. He began his academic career by gaining degrees in Material Science and Solid State Physics, and Engineering of Medical Equipment before obtaining his PhD from the ICR in 2002. In 2007, he was nominated to the Faculty post of Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School (USA).

Joao obtained his PhD from the Joint Department of Physics located at the ICR's Sutton site. "The thesis I undertook really allowed me to build on the knowledge I had acquired at my previous universities," he elaborates. Already skilled in material science and medical engineering, Joao's research project allowed him to explore the advantages and disadvantages of different Intensity-Modulated Radiation (IMRT) Therapy delivery techniques.

"At the time IMRT was really coming of age and I could see that it would have a significant impact on the treatment of many cancers. My project explored various aspects of IMRT such as multiple static field (MSF) delivery, dynamic MLC (DMLC) delivery, NOMOS MIMiC and compensators, all of which have a major influence on the efficiency of the therapy," he explains.

Joao’s PhD addressed the problems identified through modifying IMRT techniques, such as optimisation of fluence profiles (number of particles that intersect a unit area) for patient administration, incorporating MLC delivery constraints such as DMLC and smoothing filtering of fluences maps (to remove high frequency components in fluence patterns) with image-based filters such as median and binomial filters.

As well as embracing the academic side of the ICR, Joao thoroughly enjoyed the social side too. "In the first two years of my PhD I was a member of the Physics team that won the ICR’s mini-Olympics in both years," he enthuses. And it seems he made use of the on-site sports facilities too – Joao was crowned ICR/Royal Marsden young squash player of the year in 1999.