Space Radiation Physics group

for Particle Therapy and Radiation Protection in Space

The Radiation Physics Group is one of the eight subgroups of the GSI Biophysics department, led by Marco Durante. It is composed of an international group of physicists, engineers, and students working on radiation physics applied to radiation protection in space and ion-beam therapy. The group is also responsible for the operation of the GSI experimental room Cave A.

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Photo: GSI
Figure: Heavy-ion beam raster scanning technique developed at GSI [figure from https://www.ph.tum.de/academics/why/questions/heavy-ions/]
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[figure from https://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/workinginspace/eva_stats.html]
Figure: Space explorer in LEO [figure from https://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/workinginspace/eva_stats.html

Current Team Members:

Uli Weber, group leader (u.weber@gsi.de)
Christoph Schuy, deputy group leader and responsible person for the space radiation simulator project (c.schuy@gsi.de)
Daria Boscolo, responsible person for the BARB project and working on shielding in space and FLASH (d.boscolo@gsi.de)
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Photo: T. Wagner
Tim Wagner, responsible person for radiation hardness experiments (t.wagner@gsi.de)
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Photo: L. Gesson
Levana Gesson, working on CMOS detector applications (l.gesson@gsi.de)
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Photo: W. Charuchinda
Warisara Charuchinda, working on FLASH (w.charuchinda@gsi.de)
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Photo: H.Nguyen
Ha Nguyen Hong, working on FLASH (h.nguyen@gsi.de)
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Photo: Gera
Adam L. Gera working on engineering projects HEARTS (a.l.gera@gsi.de)
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Photo: E. Schubert
Elko Schubert, mainly working on vacuum systems (e.schubert@gsi.de)

Previous Team Members:

Claire-Anne Reidel, worked with CMOS detectors
Felix Horst, mainly working on nuclear cross-sections and neutron production
Marta Rovituso, worked on helium cross-sections
Chiara La Tessa, previous group lead
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Photo: F. Luoni
Francesca Luoni, worked on shielding in space
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Photo: T. Pfuhl
Tabea Pfuhl, worked on the space radiation simulator project
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Photo: W. Krämer
Wilfried Krämer, worked on beam diagnostic detector

Master students 2023/2024

Alica Lang, working on space radiation shielding (DEIMOS)

Master students 2022/2023

Alica Lang, working on space radiation shielding (DEIMOS)
Moritz Westermayer, working on 3D range modulator optimization
Ines Bennink, working for proton FLASH developments

Often, scientific careers start with master's theses. Many master's students start loving scientific work and decide to continue working in this research field as doctoral candidates. Master’s students are welcome to our group if they are qualified, and we make a special effort to supervise them. Many of our master’s theses could be transferred into a (first) scientific publication.
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Research Projects

Ion Beam Therapy

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Photo: GSI
Figure: The beam-scanning pilot project at GSI, Cave M (1987-2008)

 •  FLASH for Protons: 3D Range Modulators (funded by VARIAN Medical)
•  FLASH for Carbon-Ions (GSI)
•  PARTITUR: Biologische und physikalische Optimierung der Partikelstrahlen (BMBF funded)
•  BARB: Biomedical Applications of Radioactive ion Beams (advanced ERC grant, EU)
•  CMOS Sensors: In-situ beam monitoring and near-field fluence measurements (GSI)
•  3D-Path: 3D-Range modulators (ZIM)  (closed 2020) (BMBF/AiF funded)
•  Helium beams: nuclear fragmentation cross section measurements (closed 2019) (GSI)

Radiation Protection in Space

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figure from https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA16938.jpg
Figure: Space radiation sources: GCR and SPE [figure from https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA16938.jpg]

•   HEARTS:  Developping Infrastructure for Electronic Radiation Hardness tests (EU funded)
•   IBPER21: MoonDust: Mixed radiation fields behind GCR simulator and Moon regolith simulant (ESA funded)
•   GCR Simulator: Efficiently generating the full galactic-cosmic radiation spectrum  (ESA funded)
•   DEIMOS: Dose build-up Measurements for space radiation Shielding applications (ESA funded)
•   ROSSINI: Space Radiation Shielding with Innovative materials (closed 2021) (ESA funded)

Our infrastructure

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Photo: GSI

­­­----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------              Collaborations:

•   ESA ESTEC (Dr. Giovanni Santin)
•  THM Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (Prof. Klemens Zink)
•   University Clinic Marburg and Marburg Ion-Beam Therapy (MIT) (Prof. Engenhart-Cabillic)
•  University Clinic Heidelberg and Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy (HIT) (Prof. Juergen Debus)
•  University of Strasbourg (Dr. Dr. Marie Vanstalle and Dr. Dr. Christian Finck)
•  PTB (Dr. Miroslav Zboril)
•  DLR (Dr. Thomas Berger)
•  TIFPA Trento Institute for Fundamentals Physics Applications (Prof. Francesco Tommasino, Prof. Chiara La Tessa)
•  HZDR-Oncoray (Dr. Felix Horst, Dr. Wolfgang Enghardt)
•  NASA Langley (Dr. John Norbury, Dr. Tony Slaba)
•  Thales Alenia Space Torino (Dr. Martina Giraudo)
•  CERN (Dr. Rubén Garcìa Alìa)
•  Holland PTC (Dr. Marta Rovituso)
•   LU Justus Liebig University Gießen (Prof. Kai Brinkmann)
•  University of Rome (Prof. Vincenzo Patera)
•  Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok (Dr. Tanawat)
•  Brookhaven National Laboratory (Dr. Adam Rusek)
•   CNAO Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica (Dr. Sandro Rossi)
•  VARIAN Medical Systems (Proton therapy team)


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