The questions of science always lie in what is not known yet, though
the techniques we use determine what questions we can study.
The Monte Carlo method is a powerful tool for research and practical applications in many branches of science - in mathematics, physics, engineering, biology and medicine, and in particular radiation biophysics and radiation therapy.
The MC2010 Stockholm, an international workshop on Monte Carlo computational methods in radiation track simulation and applications in physical, biological, and medical sciences, was the second of its kind to be convened. The first meeting was held at Harwell, Oxfordshire in 1998 sponsored by the Radiation and Genome Stability Unit, Medical Research Council, United Kingdom (UK). The MC2010 Stockholm meeting brought together a wider community of scientists, researchers and students including those working on fundamental aspects of physics of radiation track, track simulation, medical physics, and biophysical modelling. It was truly international workshop with over 100 participants from 17 countries including Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, and United Staes of America (USA).
The scientific programme of the meeting included both theory and application. The current state of knowledge concerning the physics and application of Monte Carlo techniques in biomedical fields were presented and examined, and newly developing areas of future studies were discussed. The workshop presentations were a mixture of invited, proffered papers, and poster presentations. A key aspect of the meeting was to offer training courses on Monte Carlo techniques to PhD students. The meeting started with two computer training courses for the general purpose code PHITS, at the beginner and the intermediate levels, tutored by Dr Koji Niita (Research Organization for
Information Science & Technology (RIST), Japan); and the advanced course for the MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle) code tutored by Dr Grady Hughes, a member of the MCNP team at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, USA. Another important feature of the workshop was to give research students and the young-scientists-in-training (SIT) the opportunity to present and discuss their work.
The papers presented in this volume represent the core of the papers presented at the meeting. We thank all the participants and the presenters who made it a rich experience for everyone. We also like to thank the Scientific Committee, and the Local Organizing Committee (Tommy Sundstrom, Thiansin Liansuwan, Martha Hultqvist, Kristin Wiklund, Reza Taleei, Marta Lazeroni, Patrik Vreed, Laura Antonovic) for their splendid help and work. We offer our thanks and gratitude to the sponsors: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, The Swedish Science Research Council, The Swedish Cancer Society, SSM - The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, CRPR - Center for Radiation Protection Research at Stockholm University, Informa Healthcare as well The International Journal of Radiation Biology for their sterling efforts for the publication of the proceedings.