University of Coimbra - IMRT Beam Angle Optimization Project

People

Researchers

	Joana Matos Dias has a BSc in Computers Engineering (1996), a MSc in Operations Research (2000), a MSc in Quantitative Finance (2011) and a PhD in Management Science (2006). She is an Assistant Professor at University of Coimbra, where she has been responsible for several course units like logistics, operations research, modeling in management, simulation. She is also a researcher at Inesc-Coimbra. Her main research interest is decision making models and algorithms in general, and operations research applied to health problems, combinatorial optimization, location problems in particular. She is author or co-author of two books, more than 30 papers in refereed international journals, conference proceeding and book chapters. Personal homepage: https://www.uc.pt/feuc/joanamatosdias
	Humberto Pereira Rocha is currently a Researcher at the Inesc-Coimbra Research Center. He received both his bachelors and masters degrees in Applied Mathematics from the University of Coimbra in 1998 and 2001, respectively. He completed a PhD in Computational and Applied Mathematics at Old Dominion University (ODU) and NASA Langley Research Center, both in Virginia, USA. His main areas of research are the development and analysis of numerical methods for large-scale linear/nonlinear programming, integer optimization, and derivative-free optimization. Most of his research centers on applications in physics, inverse engineering, aeronautics, and presently radiotherapy. This multidisciplinary approach leads to publications in a variety of journals and to many presentations and lectures on computational and applied mathematics and related applications in several different countries and for audiences with distinct backgrounds.
	Ernesto Costa is Full Professor at the Department of Informatics Engineering of the University of Coimbra (Portugal). He got a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering (area of Computing Science) in 1985. His main research interests are in the areas of Evolutionary Computation, Artificial Life, Complex Systems, Machine Learning, Cognition and Computational Biology. He participated in several projects, got several best paper awards. He was the recipient of the “2009 EvoStar Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Evolutionary Computation”. He organized several international scientific events and had published over 150 papers in books, journals and proceedings of conferences. He is member of the editorial board of several journals.
	Anabela Simões is Assistant Professor at the Coimbra Institute of Engineering. She is, since 1996, member of the Centre for Informatics and Systems of the University of Coimbra (CISUC). From 1996 to 2003 she belonged to the Artificial Intelligence Group. In 2003 she became a founding member of the Evolutionary and Complex Systems Group (ECOS) of CISUC where she is currently a Senior Researcher.She received the 5 years BSc (1995), MSc (1999) and PhD (2010) degrees in Computer Engineering from the University of Coimbra. Her research interest covers the following areas: genetic and evolutionary computation, memetic computing, swarm intelligence (particle swarm optimization and ant colony optimization), estimation of distributions algorithms, meta-heuristics and hyper-heuristics, artificial neural networks for scheduling, computational intelligence for combinatorial and dynamic optimization problems, intelligent systems, data mining, intelligent data analysis and data integration. She is co-author, with Ernesto Costa, of the textbook Artificial Intelligence: Foundations and Applications (in portuguese).
	Brigida da Costa Ferreira is a researcher at I3N Department of Physics from Aveiro University. She graduated at the Science Faculty of Lisbon University and did her PhD at Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University. The subject of her PhD thesis was biological optimization of breast and cervix tumours. Her postdoc was done at Aveiro University and the Medical Physics Department of the IPOCFG aiming to implement IMRT for head and neck tumours and Stereotactic IMRT for brain lesions. Presently, still within the collaboration between Aveiro University and the Medical Physics department of IPOCFG, her research project involves the development of tools to collect clinical patient data for radiobiological studies. Her work was published in international journals like Medical Physics, Radiation Oncology, Physics Medicine and Biology, Acta Oncologica, Physica Medica (awarded best paper 2006-2007), etc. Some of her main interests are: implementation of sophisticated radiation therapy techniques (IMRT, IGRT, ART, ion therapy); radiobiological optimization and evaluation of radiation therapy and evaluation of clinical outcomes.
	Maria do Carmo Lopes is Head of the Medical Physics Department of the Portuguese Institut of Oncology in Coimbra (IPOCFG, E.P.E.), with 20 years experience in Medical Physics with special interest in Radiotherapy. She has been invited Associated Professor at Aveiro University (I3N, Physics Dept.) since 2008. Her PhD. was obtained in 1991, in Radiation Physics at Coimbra University. She has been deeply involved in the clinical development of new techniques in Radiotherapy, like radiosurgery, stereotactic radiotherapy and IMRT. She has coordinated many education and training activities, namely Radiation Protection Courses for different health care professionals, in the Centre of Permanent Professional Development at IPOC and she has collaborated with different universities in graduation and post-graduation programs. She has been the Coordinator of the Medical Physics Division of the Portuguese Physics Society and the National Member Officer of the European Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (EFOMP) during the period 2005-2012. She was member of the Physics Committee of ESTRO in 2005-2011. She was the Chair of the Education and Training Committee in the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) during the last term 2009-2012. She is presently member of the Scientific Committee at EFOMP and of the Education and Training Committee at IOMP. She is active in various national and international research projects, namely with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
	Tiago Ventura is a physicist at the Medical Physics Department of the Portuguese Institute of Oncology Francisco Gentil in Coimbra (IPOCFG, EPE) since 2007. He has completed his degree in Physics Engineering at University of Aveiro in 2007 and was awarded with the prize for the best graduating student of Physics Engineering of the year. His main field of interests covers the development of tools for quality assurance in radiation therapy and the implementation of new sophisticated techniques such as Radiosurgery, Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy and Stereotactic radiotherapy. Presently is doing his PhD in Physics Engineering at University of Aveiro. His research project is in the field of clinical implementation of gantry angle optimization, evaluation of physical and biological objective functions and plan evaluation.