I am presently working as Graduate Research Assistant at Portland State University (Portland, OR), Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, Dept. of Computer Science. I collaborate with Prof. Melanie Mitchell in the development of a computer program for solving visual-analogy problems. It will build on the work previously done by Mitchell and Hofstadter in developing an original architecture for modeling analogy-making processes in the human brain in the "microdomain" of letter strings.

I'm hoping to post some material here soon. Meanwhile, you can find some information on this research project on Prof. Mitchell's page.

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT)

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is an experimental radiation therapy for cancer. It is based on the interaction of a drug loaded with ¹⁰B atoms (which should selectively accumulate only in cancerous cells) and a neutron beam. When a neutron reaches a ¹⁰B nucleus, there is a high probability of triggering a reaction that will split the nucleus into two heavy ions. The ions will release a high amount of energy within 10 micro-meters from the original location of the reaction, i.e., very likely within the cancerous cell that contained the original ¹⁰B nucleus. This energy should deliver a highly targeted and localized radiation dose, sparing surrounding (potentially healthy) tissue cells.

Do you want to learn more on Neutron Capture Therapy? Here are a few useful links:

The International Society for Neutron Capture Therapy

The 12th International Congress on Neutron Capture Therapy

The European Project On Neutron Capture Therapy

Harvard-MIT NCT programme

My Nuclear Engineering Degree Thesis:

My thesis advisor Prof. Nicola Cerullo introduced me to BNCT back in 1998, and I began to work on the thesis in my spare time. The thesis and I were ready for graduation at the end of 2001, when I finished my 5-year degree in Nuclear Engineering at University of Pisa (Italy).

My thesis pertained to the application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) data to neutron-transport simulations (using the MCNP code) for radiation-treatment planning in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) for cancer. In short, my task was to use and improve a code that reads data on the distribution of ¹⁰B atoms in human tissues from PET images, uses it to prepare the input file for the MCNP code (which then simulates the irradiation of the patient) and then processes the MCNP output file to organize and display the results. Data management, processing and display were performed using MATLAB. The aim is that of estimating the dose released to tumor and healthy tissue, to evaluate the potential efficacy of the treatment.

March 1^st, 2002 – February 29^th, 2004:

Researcher at Università di Pisa, Dept. of Mechanical, Nuclear and Production Engineering (DIMNP), collaborating with Dr. Giuseppe G. Daquino under the supervision of Prof. Nicola Cerullo and Prof. Marino Mazzini.

My research activity pertained to treatment planning for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT), an innovative and still experimental therapy for cancer. The activity consisted of carrying out simulations of radiation transport in human tissues using the Monte Carlo N-Particle code (MCNP, Los Alamos National Laboratories) to estimate the damage to healthy tissue and tumor separately. DIMNP was developing a system (named BDTPS® - patent pending) that coupled anatomical information (from Computed Tomography – CT - images) and functional information on Boron concentration in tissues (from Positron Emission Tomography – PET - images) to automatically produce a more accurate input for the MCNP code and process its output. Particularly, my activity required the investigation of the principles of several different medical imaging techniques (Magnetic Resonance Imaging – MRI –, besides the already mentioned CT and PET) and the development and use of Matlab scripts to process, analyse, organize and display MCNP input and output data, prior to the implementation of these features in the BDTPS^® System (patent pending). I contributed to the numerical validation of the system and developed the on-line and context-sensitive help for this application.

I also collaborated to a preliminary study meant to investigate the feasibility (both from the mechanical and from the radiation-protection viewpoint) of some proposed modifications to an existing cyclotron and a research nuclear reactor, to make them suitable for BNCT irradiation experiments. We should write a technical report on this, some time.

Other activities included supervising the thesis work of Nuclear Engineering students, writing and reviewing grant proposals and papers, some of which I presented in national and international conferences (see publication list).

I was secretary of the organizing committee of the “International Workshop on Neutron Capture Therapy: state of the art” and “3rd Young Members Neutron Capture Therapy Meeting” (Pisa, November-December 2003) and, besides liaison with participants and various organizational duties, my activity included creating and managing the two conference web sites.

I am also one of the editors of the proceedings of the two conferences mentioned above.

I was the 2002-2003 President (acclaimed!) of the NCT Young Members.

Application of X-ray computed tomography to the modeling of acoustic-wave scattering from the seafloor

August 1^st -October 31^st 1999:

"Summer Research Assistantship" (SRA) sponsored by the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC, formerly SACLANT Undersea Research Centre), an international research organization situated in La Spezia (Italy) and specializing in underwater acoustics, oceanography, systems concept evaluation and undersea defense studies. Reporting to the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, the NURC conducts world class maritime research with products in support of NATO's operational and transformational requirements. Supervised by Dr A.P.Lyons and Dr E.Pouliquen, my research task pertained to the use of X-ray computed tomography (CT) images for the estimate of volume structural parameters relevant to the modeling of seafloor acoustic-wave volume scattering (for remote sensing purposes). The results were included in several papers and presentations (see publication list).