 |
| Maryellen Giger speaks at APPC in Brisbane |
 |
| Maryellen Giger and Mick Withford |
 |
Andy Brown and the SPIE Student Chapter
of Auckland University |
SPIE President-Elect Maryellen Giger of the University of Chicago (USA) chaired a conference session on biomedical physics and gave an invited talk on "deep learning" in breast-cancer imaging at the 13th Asia Pacific Physics Conference (APPC) in Brisbane, Australia, 4-8 December, 2016.
Giger's conference participation was part of a wider trip to meet with research colleagues and SPIE constituents in Australia. SPIE Senior Director Andy Brown also attended the conference and made visits with Giger to the Australian E-Health Research Center.
The APPC was held in conjunction with the 22nd Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) Biennial Congress and the annual meeting of the Australian Optical Society (AOS).
Giger, a leading expert in quantitative and digital image analysis for cancer diagnoses, presented her research on computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) and deep learning in the medical imaging of breast cancer.
SPIE Fellow Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop of University of Queensland (Australia), along with AIP President Warrick Couch, co-chaired the event. Highlights included SPIE Fellow Eric Mazur of Harvard University (USA) and 2015 Nobel Prize recipient Takaaki Kajita of University of Tokyo giving talks on innovative teaching methods and discovering neutron oscillations using the Super Kamiokande neutrino observatory in Japan, respectively.
Giger and Brown also paid a visit to the Macquarie University Photonics Research Centre in Sydney where SPIE Senior Member Mick Withford provided a tour of his labs. Withford's group engages in a broad range of research activities including in laser material processing, 3D printing, optical communications, and the evaluation of ancient materials. The group was also was involved in manufacturing parts for the torches used in the 2000 Summer Olympics, held in Sydney.
The SPIE leaders also visited the Centre for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP) at Macquarie University with CNBP Deputy Director Ewa Goldys. The tour included a viewing of the largest hologram in the world.
Shortly before the APPC was held, Brown also made presentations at a meeting of the SPIE Student Chapter at Auckland University (New Zealand); gave a talk on the global photonics market at a meeting sponsored by the University of Otago's Dodd-Walls Centre (New Zealand); and delivered a keynote talk at the IONS KOALA student conference in Melbourne (Australia).
