Professor Ranald MacKay (Ran) is the Director of Christie Medical Physics & Engineering, a regional medical physics department based in the Northwest of England. Ran has over 25 years experience in radiotherapy and had worked in research and clinical roles. He was the technical lead for the development of proton therapy at The Christie Hospital in Manchester, the first proton centre to open in England's National Health Service. The centre commenced treatment in 2018.

Dr. I. Martínez-Rovira is a researcher at the Physics Departament of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). Her research is devoted to the development of innovative radiotherapy approaches, such as spatially fractionated radiotherapy (SFRT), FLASH-RT and the combined use of RT and nanoparticles. Her studies involve experimental dosimetry, Monte Carlo simulations, as well as radiobiological studies.

Anthony Mascia is Assistant Professor in Department of Radiation Oncology and the Director of Medical Physics for the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and University of Cincinnati Proton Therapy Center. Anthony completed his PhD at University of California, Los Angeles in the area of proton therapy and radiation detection. He has over 18 years of experience in proton therapy, having participated in or led the opening of four proton therapy center across the United States. His areas of research are radiation detector design and implementation, relative and absolute proton dosimetry, and experimental design and implementation for biological studies. Most recently, in the area of FLASH research and translation, Anthony is Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on several project, from the absolute dosimetry of FLASH radiation to studying the FLASH effect in animal models. Under his co-direction, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and University of Cincinnati initiated FAST-01, the first in-human clinical trial in proton FLASH radiotherapy.

Born in Argentina in 1958, close to Iguazu Falls, I first studied engineering followed by medical physics in Buenos Aires, where I have also worked at the National Academy of Medicine. In 1985 I moved to Paris. At the Universities of Toulouse and Paris I took a master and PhD degree in medical physics (dealing with stereotactic radiation therapy) and I then got a permanent position at Curie Institut under the direction of Jean Claude Rosenwald. In 1990 we started the protontherapy project in Orsay, where I was appointed as technical director covering the medical physics and engineering fields for about 8 years. I took some sabbaticals in US, at Indiana University Cyclotron Facility and at Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School as invited scientist. In 2005 I have been in charge of the call for bids for the new protontherapy project in Orsay as the project director, in 2008 named head of medical physics at Curie Institute and in 2010 I have been elected as Chairman of the Particle Therapy Cooperative Group (PTCOG). In 2019 I moved to Madrid, as head of medical physics for the proton project of Quironsalud in Madrid, and in charge of R&D in medical Physics. We treat the first Spanish patient with protontherapy, and also the first in the Spanish speaking countries in the world, in December 2019.

As a research scientist at the Radiation Therapy Division at the Department of Radiation Oncology, i am focusing on the investigation of the biological effect of ultra-high dose-rate (FLASH) radiation, and the development of the first FLASH radiotherapy cabinet for small animal irradiation. I am also a collaborative member in the clinical vision of PHASER, a new technology for the clinical FLASH irradiation of patients. As a post-doctorate fellow at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, the previous years I have dedicated my work on the development of primary cancer and metastatic tumor-mouse models, for the purpose of investigating immune cell migration, early detection of disease, and clinically relevant therapy combining radiation with novel drugs. My training as a doctorate candidate and during my brief post-doctorate appointment in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Oxford University UK has equipped me with a deep understanding of the molecularly targeted in-vivo imaging with the use of contrast agents for early detection of metastasis. As a physics undergraduate and graduate student at the Department of Physics, Liverpool University UK, I have developed deep knowledge in all types of radiation and their implication in the entire spectrum of imaging modalities and medical radiation treatment.

I am an Assistant Radiobiologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at The Ohio State University. I am interested in genetic and epigenetic research in several human malignancies, including bladder, kidney, skin, and brain cancer. Before OSU experience, I worked with Dr. Baochuan Guo for my Ph.D. and developed the multiplexed methylation profiling technology. I became intrigued by the complexity of DNA methylation and genetic alterations. During my postdoctoral training with Dr. Arnab Chakravarti, I also began exploring the functions of different types of biomarkers and their clinical significance. I fully embraced the systems biology concepts and am eager to implement AI/ML strategy into future radiobiology studies. I currently live in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

Dr Mike Merchant is a senior lecturer in Proton Therapy Physics in the PRECISE group (Proton Research at the Christie and Division of Cancer Sciences) at the Division of Cancer Sciences, University of Manchester, UK. Dr Merchant received a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from the University of Surrey in 2010, on the topic of beam optics of magnetic quadrupole probe forming systems, for the purpose of focussing beams of MeV ions to sub-micron spot sizes. During this time, he developed an interest in the use of ion microbeams to investigate the radiation response of living cells. Since moving to the University of Manchester in 2015 he has developed a primary research interest in the development of biologically augmented treatment planning for proton therapy based on nano-dosimetry and mechanistic modelling of DNA repair. Dr Merchant leads the in silico modelling activity for Proton Therapy within PRECISE. Dr Merchant led the technical design for the Christie Proton Research Beamline, a 250 MeV beamline in a dedicated research space at the new Christie proton therapy centre. Joint investment by the UK Department of Health and the Christie Hospital Charity into the Manchester Proton Therapy Centre funded the development of a dedicated proton therapy research space in the fourth treatment room at the Christie proton therapy centre. The research beamline features a Varian engineering scanning nozzle, and has the capability for pencil beam spot-scanning. Collaboration with Don Whitley Scientific Ltd has led to the development of a highly automated high-throughput hypoxia end-station, compatible with proton beam scanning for proton radiobiology. The Christie Proton Research Beamline is national resource for researchers to investigate the radiobiological response to proton irradiation.