PhD student in 3rd year at LITO laboratory
What is your background?
Originally from the drizzly north-west corner of England, I did my undergraduate and master's degrees at the University of Cambridge, specialising in theoretical physics. After finishing my master's, I spent two years working in London, before continuing my migration south to Paris! I started my PhD at the Université Paris-Sud in April 2018 within the HYBRID program.
What is your thesis topic?
My thesis is titled ' Tumour ID cards for multi-scale characterisation of tumour heterogeneity '. Less abstractly, I am building deep learning models to help with medical imaging problems. I am also trying to understand how these models work, to answer questions such as: What biological information are these models using to make their decisions? How do they respond to images from different scanners? What happens when we have more/less data?
What is HYBRID?
HYBRID ('Healthcare Years for Bright Researchers for Imaging Data') is an EU-funded project aiming to bring together academic and industrial experts to advance imaging sciences. There are 15 PhD students at different universities across Europe, each specialising in a topic related to multi-modal medical imaging. More information can be found at https://www.hybrid2020.eu/home.html.
The best memory of your thesis?
Normally this would be the memory of a conference in an exotic location, perhaps situated close to a beach. But alas, because of COVID-19 the most exotic conference I have been to was in Manchester. Still, this would probably be my best memory. Conferences are a great chance to find out what the world thinks of your work, and are a lot of fun.
What are your plans?
That's a tough question and I don't have an answer! I would like to continue working in medical imaging research in some form. It's an exciting and dynamic field, and it feels good to be involved in research that solves real-world medical problems.
What do you like and dislike the most in France?
Paris in summer. Sitting by the Seine with wine and charcuterie. Paris in winter. It's cold and grey and there's nothing to do.
What do you like and dislike most in France? Paris in summer. Sitting by the Seine with wine and charcuterie. Paris in winter. It's cold and grey and there's nothing to do.
If you were a radiomic feature?
If I were a radiomic feature, I would be SUVmax. The answer to all radiomic problems! If you were a dish? If I were a dish, I would be beans on toast. Delicious, simple, and one of your five a day.
If you were an animal?
To quote Carl Sandberg: 'There is an eagle in me that wants to fly away, and there is a hippo in me that wants to wallow in the mud'. So if I were an animal, I would be a hippo with wings.