Dr Jenny Spiga
I am a physicist working in the School of Science at Loughborough University. My research interests are in the field of medical physics, in particular the development and application of innovative X-ray radiotherapy techniques to improve cancer treatment (Microbeam Radiation Therapy, FLASH). I use computational modelling and experimental methods.
I have always been curious, keen to experiment and to discover. I was very lucky to have an inspirational secondary school physics teacher, who used to give me a few extra topics to research, which were not part of the curriculum. Without even realising it, I was starting my physics research journey, which since then has never stopped. I love piecing ideas together from different disciplines to solve problems, and medical physics attracted me for the impact it can have on people's lives.
The object I'm holding is something we use in our experiments. We call it a 'phantom', and we use it as a very simplified simulation of the human/animal body. Objects of this kind, in different shapes and dimensions, help us to evaluate the performance of new therapies (such as the radiation absorbed by the tumour or, more importantly, the surrounding healthy tissues that we want to preserve) before applying it to real patients.