PhD student in Machine Learning & Image Processing for Radiotherapy

Medical Physics department/Uppsala University Hospital & Department of Information Technology/Uppsala University

Join our interdisciplinary team at Uppsala University Hospital (UUH) and Uppsala University (UU) in advancing cancer treatment through technology. This unique research position, at the intersection of machine learning, image processing, and radiotherapy, offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to groundbreaking research.

In this collaborative project between the Department of Information Technology (IT) at UU and the Department of Medical Physics at the UUH, the PhD studies will be carried out in the doctoral program of Computerised Image Processing at UU, while the employment is through the hospital.

Radiotherapy at the Uppsala University Hospital
Radiotherapy is a corner stone in cancer treatment as half of all cancer patients receive radiation as part of their treatment. At the Medical Physics department, we are a team of highly skilled medical physicists, linac engineers and a nurse supporting the radiotehrapy at UUH. Several of the medical physicists holds a PhD and others are PhD students. The department is equipped with four conventional treatment machines (Linacs), one MR-Linac, two machines for brachytherapy and one machine for contact therapy.

Image Analysis at Uppsala University
Uppsala University (https://www.uu.se/en/about-uu) is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries. It is a public research university, with a very broad focus of nine faculties. Within the Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Information Technology (http://it.uu.se) is home to 5500 students and 300 employees. Within this department, the PhD student will be academically supervised by Assoc. Prof. Orcun Göksel (http://goksel.org) who is heading the Computer-assisted Applications in Medicine (CAiM) research group. CAiM is part of the Center for Image Analysis as well as the Uppsala Medtech Science and Innovation Centre. Research at CAiM is focused on developing computational methods for medical and biomedical imaging and image analysis, including novel machine and deep learning techniques for a wide range of applications from ultrasound and MRI to microscopy and digital pathology.

Tasks and mission
The latest generation treatment machines (MR-Linac) where an MR camera is integrated, thus enable high-quality imaging of the soft-tissue at the treatment. The precision of the treatment is increased since the treatment is adapted to the daily patient anatomy for a more individiualised treatment. To monitor and adapt treatments given changing and moving anatomy, dose accumulation between multiple treatment sessions is needed. This requires Deformable Image Registration (DIR) for precisely aligning multiple images, but todays’ algorithms are relatively slow, sub-optimal, and unaware of potential errors and uncertainties. A main goal of this project is to develop AI based DIR techniques that are not only faster and more accurate, but also are interpretable and uncertainty aware. The project results have great potential of being used in the clinics and the future of radiotherapy.

Your qualifications
The successful candidate selected for this position at the medical physics department shall in due process also register as a PhD student at UU Department of Information Technology. Therefore, the employment is conditioned on being eligible for the doctoral program (see our faculty-wide guidelines (https://www.uu.se/en/disciplinary-domain/science-and-technology/study/doctoral-studies) here).

The following qualifications are sought in a successful candidate:

• A master’s degree in computer science, medical physics, or engineering, with relevant background in image processing
• Experience in the development of methods in AI and medical image processing
• Fluent in relevant programming languages
• Good communication skills in English
• Excellent collaboration abilities

Knowledge about radiotherapy is a plus.

We offer
Project employment for four years to pursue a PhD degree. You will be employed at the Medical Physics department, but will also be affiliated at and in very close collaboration with the IT department at Uppsala University where your academic supervisor will be. The start date is negotiable, from earliest 2024-03-01 to latest 2024-09-01, where earlier start dates can be preference for consideration.

The benefits part of the employment (https://regionuppsala.se/jobba-hos-oss/bli-var-nya-kollega/formaner/) can be found here (in swedish).

If you have any questions, contact us:
Orcun Göksel, Associate Professor, Department of Information Thechnology, Image analysis, Uppsala University E-mail: orcun.goksel@it.uu.se
David Tilly, Research Physicist, Medical Physics, Uppsala University Hospital, david.tilly@akademiska.se

Union contact persons, Saco/naturvetarna:
Adrian Moreno Moreno, medical physicist, Medical Physics, Uppsala University Hospital, adrian.moreno.moreno@akademiska.se
Sara Bruce, medical physicist, Medical Physics, Uppsala University Hospital, sara.bruce@akademiska.se

Submit your application using the link below by 2024-02-28. Applications will remain open until the position is filled.

Region Uppsala värdesätter de kvaliteter som jämn könsfördelning och mångfald tillför verksamheten. Vi ser därför gärna sökande av alla kön och med olika födelsebakgrund, funktionalitet och livserfarenhet.

Denna rekrytering sker helt genom Region Uppsalas försorg. Vi undanber oss därför telefonsamtal från rekryteringsföretag och annonsförsäljare.