Biology: Hokland, Steffen
Steffen Lund Hokland was originally educated in theoretical atomic physics and mathematics at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. He received his masters degree in physics in 2003 also at the University of Aarhus, where he worked on a theoretical description of Laser-Assisted Scattering - a process where electrons can exchange photons with an ambient laser field during a collision with an atomic target. The work focused on testing whether a certain class of approximations could account for the descrepancies between experimental results and other theoretical predictions.
After graduating, he was employed as a research assistant at the MR-Research Centre under Insitute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark (head, Prof. Hans Stødkilde-Jørgensen). Early on, a close affiliation with the Department of Experimental Clinical Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital (head Prof. Jens Overgaard), was established. In August 2004 a PhD project was started under primary supervisors Dr. Michael Horsman, Dept. Experimental Clinical Oncology and Dr. Michael Pedersen, the MR-Research Centre. The aim was to establish a collaboration between these two units and the Emagerie Moléculaire et Fonctionelle, University of Bordeaux 2, France in order to develop and implement an experimental setup of MRI-Guided Focused Ultrasound (MRI-FUS).
Steffen Lund Hokland currently focuses on completing his PhD entitled Cancer Thermotherapy using MRI-Guided Focused Ultrasound. During the project a functional experimental MRI-FUS setup has been developed.The work has focused on establishing (near) real-time communication between scanner host computer and a distant client computer as well as optimizing system performance for small animal research. In parallel with this work research on the anti-cancer effect of hyperthermia combined with VDAs and radiation has been performed using conventional water bath heating. Current and future projects involve evaluating the anti-cancer effect of MRI-FUS mediated moderate hyperthermia, tumor response to hyperthermia characterized with MRI, local drug delivery using heat-sensitive liposomes, development of temperature control algorithms based on the bio-heat equation and real-time temperature maps.
Physics: de Bruijne, Maarten
Maarten de Bruijne was born in Ede, The Netherlands, in 1973. He received his M.Sc. degree from the Delft University of Technology, Measurement and Control System group, in the section Biomechanical Engineering and Man-Machine Systems, in 1999. After graduation he joined The MathWorks Benelux, where he worked as an application engineer for 3 years. In this position he developed the RHyThM tool for the Hyperthermia group at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam. In 2002 he joined this group as a hyperthermia research physicist, working towards a PhD degree with a focus on quality determinants in superficial hyperthermia. Since last year he holds a position as a process system engineer at the Energy Research Centre of The Netherlands. His professional interests include biomedical engineering, energy conversion systems, modelling and simulation, measurement and control, prototyping and project management.
Physics: Paulides, Margarethus
Margarethus Marius Paulides was born in the Netherlands in 1979. He studied Electrical Engineering at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e), where he received his MSc degree in 2002. During this study, he worked on a calibration procedure for an active-microwave imaging scanner at l'Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité (Supélec), near Paris, France. His graduation project was carried out at the National Institute for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), The Hague and was in association with the Hyperthermia Unit of Erasmus MC - Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam.
From 2003 to 2007, he worked towards his PhD degree at the Hyperthermia Unit of Erasmus MC - Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center on a project of the Dutch Cancer Society entitled: “Development, construction and clinical testing of a novel electromagnetic applicator for hyperthermia of advanced Head and Neck carcinoma”. Within this project, a working prototype was developed for hyperthermia treatment of tumours in the head and neck region. Currently, the clinical performance of this applicator is being tested during experimental treatments. For this research he received ICHO Travel Awards (2004 and 2008) and ESHO's Student Award (2006) and Kim Award (2007). In 2007, Dr. Paulides received his PhD (“cum laude” / “with highest honor”) at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam.
Currently, he is working at the Hyperthermia Unit of Erasmus MC as a staff member. His research interests are in the area of hyperthermia treatment planning, bioelectromagnetics, antenna design and applied clinical physics. His activities focus on the development of technology for application of hyperthermia in general, with a focus on hyperthermia for head and neck tumours. He supervises the work of several BSc, MSc and PhD students in the field of hyperthermia and EM&Health. Further, he acts as a reviewer for the International Journal of Hyperthermia and IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.