CERN Accelerating science

Michael Campbell is the leader of the Medipix design team in the Experimental Physics Department at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland where he has worked for over 30 years. He was one of the pioneers of hybrid pixel detector readout and of the use of radiation-hard-by-design techniques both of which are now exploited widely in ASICs at the Large Hadron Collider experiments. He is spokesperson of the Medipix2, Medipix3 and Medipix4 Collaborations who seek to disseminate pixel detector technology to many different fields of science. He chairs the bi-annual Scientific Advisory Committee of the CERN Workshops on Medical Applications of Spectroscopic X-ray detectors. This Workshop brings together participants from a variety on institutions including prestigious medical schools, major medical equipment suppliers, small and medium sized enterprises as well as universities and research institutes all motivated to bring spectroscopic X-ray imaging from the lab to the clinic. Michael received his PhD from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland (his native city) and has authored several hundred scientific publications. In 2016, he was appointed Honorary Professor of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow.

Dr. Marco Silari graduated in physics in 1982 and obtained a PhD in medical physics in 1985 at the University of Milano. From 1984 to 1995 he was researcher with the Italian National Research Council (CNR) in Milano. He spent the first two years of this period as visiting scientist at the MRC (Medical Research Council) Cyclotron Unit at the Hammersmith Hospital in London (UK), where he worked on the installation of a 40 MeV proton medical cyclotron. From 1987 to 1991 Dr. Silari carried out research work on applied nuclear and radiation physics. From 1991 to 1995 he worked with Prof. Ugo Amaldi on the Italian Hadrontherapy Project, where he was project leader for the feasibility study of the National Centre for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO), which in 2011 started patient treatments in Pavia, near Milano. He was Scientific Associate at CERN from September 1994 to October 1995. He is CERN staff member since 1996, senior physicist since 2001. He was responsible for radiation protection around the SPS, PS and LEP accelerators, for radiation protection of LEP decommissioning and has been involved with radiation protection studies of the LHC experiments and for future CERN accelerators. Within the Radiation Protection group he is now responsible for special projects, which include detector R&D for radiation dosimetry and medical applications, and radiological characterization of materials for the free-release in Switzerland. He has been scientist-in-charge of the EU Marie Curie projects RADENV (2006-2009) on accelerator radiation protection and ARDENT (2012-2016) on advanced radiation dosimetry. ARDENT involved 14 institutes, universities and private companies worldwide with CERN as coordinator. He is member of two working groups of the EURADOS (European Dosimetry Group) and member of the EURADOS Council since January 2020. Throughout the years, Dr. Silari has maintained a keen interest in Medical Physics and an academic interest as supervisor of many master and PhD students. He has taught for 13 years at the PhD School of Medical Physics in Milano. He is co-author of more than 200 scientific publications and holds two patents. 

Luca Foschini, Ph.D. is a researcher, data scientist, and executive who has spent the last decade building intelligent systems to measure human health and behavior. He is the co-founder and Chief Data Scientist of Evidation Health. Evidation Health is a new kind of health and measurement company that provides the world’s most innovative biopharma and health care companies the technology and guidance they need to understand how everyday behavior and health interact. Previously he has held R&D positions as Google, Ask.com, and the CERN. 

​Luca’s research interests have been at the intersection of computer science and life sciences and include the development of efficient algorithms for collecting and analyzing massive time series data, machine learning methods for mining human metrics and bio-signals, and research on privacy and security. Luca has co-authored more than 30 academic papers and conference abstracts, and several patents.  More recently, Luca had an active role in working with regulatory bodies to facilitate the use of commercial wearable devices in clinical research.

Jan is responsible for R&D and innovations at Advacam, Prague. His role in company as Scientific Director is to design new imaging methods, perform experimental work, develop algorithms for data analysis and lead the technically oriented team members. Jan Jakubek is working in field of radiation imaging and pixel detectors for more than 15 years being affiliated with Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics of Czech Technical University in Prague as head of Department of physical applications and technology. His scientific publication list counts more than 150 impacted articles and many contributions to conference proceedings. His work is very often cited by other authors (more than 5 000 citations in total). He is inventor/co-inventor of many patents.

Dr. Bruce Levine, Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy, is the Founding Director of the Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility (CVPF) in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He received a B.A. (Biology) from Penn and a Ph.D. in Immunology and Infectious Diseases from Johns Hopkins. First-in-human adoptive immunotherapy trials include the first use of a lentiviral vector, the first infusions of gene edited cells, and the first use of lentivirally-modified cells to treat cancer. Dr. Levine is co-inventor of the first FDA approved gene therapy (Kymriah), chimeric antigen receptor T cells for leukemia and lymphoma, licensed to Novartis. Dr. Levine is co-inventor on 30 issued US patents and co-author of >200 manuscripts and book chapters with a Google Scholar citation h-index of 100. He is a Co-Founder of Tmunity Therapeutics, and of Capstan Therapeutics both spinouts of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Levine is a recipient of the William Osler Patient Oriented Research Award, the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation, the National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match ONE Forum 2020 Dennis Confer Innovate Award, serves as Immediate Past-President of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. He has written for Scientific American and Wired and has been interviewed by the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, Time Magazine, National Geographic, Bloomberg, Forbes, BBC, and other international media outlets.

Twitter: @BLLPHD
Web: https://pathbio.med.upenn.edu/cvpf/site/

Sorin Cheran is an HPE Fellow and currently serves as the Global CTO for AI and Data part of the CTO Office at HPE.

Since 2007, Sorin has held positions including VP of Artificial Intelligence Strategy and Solutions Group setting up the AI business at HPE, AI and Chief Architect in Hewlett Packard Labs and as a key member in the Hybrid IT Presales team in the High-Performance Computing (HPC) and AI Competency Center in Grenoble, France.  

Sorin’s drive, creativity, energetic leadership and spirit of collaboration consistently delivers outstanding business outcomes for HPE and its customers. He has nurtured and evangelized Artificial Intelligence within HPE, as well as externally with customers and partners.

Muzlifah Haniffa is a Wellcome Senior Clinical Research Fellow, Senior Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Professor of Dermatology and Immunology at Newcastle University. 

 She graduated from medical school in Cardiff, trained as a junior doctor in Cambridge and received her dermatology specialist training in Newcastle. Muzlifah is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a recipient of the Academy of Medical Sciences Foulkes Foundation Medal and the European Federation of Immunological Societies ACTERIA Prize in Immunology and Allergology. 

Muzlifah is a leading member of the Human Cell Atlas initiative and pioneered the application of single cell genomics to decode the developing human immune system, and the human skin in health and disease.

Dr Charles Mowbray
Discovery Director, DNDi

Dr Mowbray joined DNDi in August 2011 with responsibility for lead optimization in drug discovery projects.

Prior to joining DNDi, Dr Mowbray spent 19 years at Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development where he was most recently a Research Fellow in Worldwide Medicinal Chemistry at the Sandwich Laboratories, UK.  During this time he developed experience as a medicinal chemist, project leader and people manager.  He has delivered projects across many disease areas, target classes and medicinal chemistry strategies and from target selection through to clinical candidate delivery. Two of these molecules have completed Phase IIb clinical studies.

Dr Mowbray was awarded his PhD by the University of Exeter and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of British Columbia and the University of Nottingham.

Wilfred Ndifon, a theoretical biologist, has made important contributions to a range of topics at the interface of mathematics and biology including discovering a mechanism that allows influenza viruses to escape from antibodies; a physical mechanism that governs the generation of T-cell diversity via genetic recombination; and a unified mechanistic explanation for both the age-old phenomenon of the original antigenic sin and how antigenic sin is alleviated by vaccine adjuvants. Recently, he led the development of a mathematical approach to pooled testing, which produced substantial testing-efficiency gains in field applications to COVID-19. He took his PhD at Princeton, and is currently Professor and Chief Scientific Officer at African Institute for Mathematical Sciences.

Professor Petro Terblanche
Managing Director: Afrigen Biologics

Professor Petro Terblanche has a successful track record in the strategic and operational management of technology intensive organizations. She has played a key part in the design and implementation of South Africa’s biotechnology strategy. She holds the position of Managing Director of Afrigen Biologics (Pty)Ltd based in Cape Town, South Africa. Afrigen hosts the global mRNA technology vaccine Hub under the COVAX initiative and has a mRNA Covid 19 vaccine candidate in development as part of a global program to build capacity and capabilities in LMICs to design, develop and produce mRNA vaccines. Petro also holds a part time position as Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the North-West University. A considerable part of her career was in research, development and innovation at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) as well as the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). She has held and holding several strategic public and private sector Board positions in SA as well as the position as President of the Stakeholders Organization for the Global Alliance for TB Drug Discovery and Development (2007-2010).  She has several qualifications which include: a Master of Science and a Doctor of Science in Medical Oncology from the University of Pretoria, post-doctoral she was a visiting scientist at Harvard University School of Public Health and thereafter, completed a Management of Technology program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in addition to several management and leadership programs from leading institutions globally. Prof Terblanche is the author of more than 200 scientific publications and conference papers in public health. She was recently acknowledged as one of the legends of science by the Academy of Sciences South Africa.