Andrea Gutierrez
Andrea Gutierrez’s interests lie in the detection of secondary particles created during proton beam therapy for treatment verification and dosimetry purposes. She is currently working on the design and development of a novel multi-slit gamma camera to detect prompt gamma rays. Prompt gamma rays are highly correlated with the proton’s dose and their detection is urgently needed for the real-time in vivo verification of proton’s range.
Previously, Andrea was a research associate at University College London, where she worked on the proof of concept of a semiconductor Compton camera for prompt gamma imaging during proton beam therapy. She also developed expertise in organic plastic scintillators for the detection of fast neutrons using pulse shape analysis.
During her PhD at the University of British Columbia and TRIUMF, she was based at CERN in the Antihydrogen Laser PHysics Apparatus (ALPHA) experiment. The aim of the ALPHA experiment is to trap and study antihydrogen atoms, ultimately to compare to normal hydrogen atoms and investigate the fundamental symmetry of the universe. Her contributions culminated in the first ever trapping of cold antihydrogen atoms and experiments on its internal structure, reported in the Nature Journal, and featured in the world’s media.
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- Marie Sklodowska Curie Experienced Researcher (2018 - present), as a LEaDing Fellow, Andrea is working on the project: “MuSiC: a novel Multi-Slit prompt gamma Camera for in vivo monitoring of proton therapy”.
- Postdoctoral Research Associate (2016 - 2017), Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering Department at University College London, London, UK. Andrea worked on the imaging of prompt gamma rays for geometric and verification during proton cancer therapy using a Compton camera. She also investigated neutron radiation during proton cancer therapy with organic scintillators using pulse shape analysis.
- Forecasting Analyst (2015 - 2016), Tesco Supply Chain, Welwyn Garden City, UK. After finishing her PhD, Andrea worked at Tesco Supply Chain in the Forecasting team. She researched new forecasting techniques to better predict product sales in Tesco’s stores. She was in charge of improving the prediction of the weekly shape of trade. A first trial of a new technique indicated a waste annual saving of £13 million. In Tesco, Andrea worked with the largest retail data set of the UK and gained experience with databases, data handling, forecasting simulations and development of new metrics and key performance indicators.
- Ph.D. in Physics (2010 – 2016), Physics Department at the University of British Columbia and TRIUMF, Vancouver, Canada. Andrea worked on antihydrogen, antiproton and positron experiments in the ALPHA apparatus at CERN. Her thesis focused on contributions to recent ALPHA milestones, which included trapped antihydrogen in 2010 and the first measurement of the internal structure of the antihydrogen system with microwave radiation in 2012, both of which were reported in the journal Nature and in the world’s media. Andrea led a project that studied a novel method of antiproton cloud radial compression. Her thesis was titled “Cold antihydrogen experiments and radial compression of antiproton clouds in the ALPHA apparatus at CERN”. While working at ALPHA, she developed expertise in many technical areas, such as design and engineering, cryogenics, vacuum, and particle detection.
- M.Sc. in Physics (2008 – 2010), Physics Department at the University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada. Andrea worked on the response of the Medipix detector to slow neutrons, fast neutrons, photons, electrons, protons and heavy ionizing particles. Her thesis was titled “Study of the response of ATLAS-MPX to fast neutrons”.
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- LEaDing Fellow (2018 – 2020): Marie Sklodowska Curie Experienced Researcher in the LEaDing Fellows COFUND programme. Research project: “MuSiC: a novel Multi-Slit prompt gamma Camera for in vivo monitoring of proton therapy”.
- STFC Sandpit in Advanced Radiotherapy (2017): Principal investigator in project: Sharing and Collaborative Monte Carlo code/model environment: Towards a Collaborative Computational Project in Radiotherapy.
- Four Year Doctoral Fellowship (2013 – 2015): University of British Columbia scholarship for UBC’s best PhD students.
- Fonds de recherche du Quebec (Nature et technologies) –FQRNT– scholarship (2010 – 2013): Doctoral research scholarship for the most promising graduate students in Quebec.
- UBC Faculty of Science Graduate Award (2010 – 2012): Recognition of academic achievement.
- Poster Presentation Award (2014): Awarded at the sixth international conference on Trapped Charged Particles and Fundamental Physics (TCP2014) in Takamatsu, Japan.
- Elwyn Gregg Memorial Fellowship Award (2013): University of British Columbia award for the best graduate talent.
- Travel award for the Winter Nuclear & Particle Physics Conference (WNPPC) (2014): Travel award given by the Canadian Institute of Nuclear Physics to attend WNPPC in Banff, Canada.
- Travel award for the International Conference in Atomic Physics (ICAP) summer school (2012): Travel award given by the Organizers to attend (ICAP) summer school in Paris, France.
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- M. Ahmadi, ..., A. Gutierrez, et al. (ALPHA collaboration in alphabetic order), Observation of the hyperfine spectrum of antihydrogen, Nature, 548, 66 (2017).
- M. Ahmadi, ..., A. Gutierrez, et al. (ALPHA collaboration in alphabetic order), Observation of the 1S-2S transition in trapped antihydrogen, Nature, 514, 506 (2017).
- M. Ahmadi, ..., A. Gutierrez, et al. (ALPHA collaboration in alphabetic order), An improved limit on the charge of antihydrogen from stochastic acceleration, Nature, 529, 373-376 (2016).
- C. Amole, ..., A.Gutierrez, et al. (ALPHA collaboration in alphabetic order), Resonant quantum transitions in trapped antihydrogen atoms, Nature, 483, 439 (2012).
- G. B. Andresen, ..., A. Gutierrez, et al. (ALPHA collaboration in alphabetic order), Trapped antihydrogen, Nature 468 673 (2010).
Dr Andrea Gutierrez
Marie Sklodowska Curie Experienced Researcher (LEaDing Fellows COFUND Programme)
- A.Gutierrez@tudelft.nl
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Mekelweg 15
2629 JB
Delft