ECR News | Meet the ECR members
Don’t be shy, be featured! Join our featured members and present yourselves to the rest of our thriving community of PTCOG-ECR! Fill the meet-the-members form to be featured in our LinkedIn page and in our Newsletter!
Meanwhile, read more to meet Saad Shaikh, Pablo Cabrales, Mohammed Zaki Alhajji and Marco Battestini!
Saad Shaikh
Postdoc fellow at the University College London
If someone had to describe you in three words, what would they say?
☞ Very silly man
What is a fun fact about you that most people don’t know?
☞ I play in a metal band!
What is the most random thing in your backpack or on your desk?
☞ A key chain with a toy cat sat on a toilet underneath my monitor gifted by a very talented crafty friend
Where are you from? Is there something unique about your hometown?
☞ Islamabad, Pakistan. Home to the largest mosque in South Asia.
Where have you lived so far and where would you like to go?
☞ London and London!
What is your academic background and how did you get to particle therapy?
☞ Studied Physics and started working on particle therapy for my MSci project
What has been your professional path so far?
☞ Academia within UCL, starting in High Energy Physics and now working in Medical Physics.
What is the main focus of your research? Is there something that you would highlight?
☞ I build scintillator detector systems for particle therapy – focusing on applications for fast routine quality assurance and particle radiography. Two of the most advanced research project scintillator devices for particle therapy exist at UCL!
If your research was a TV show, what would it be called?
☞ This Is Going To Hurt
What are your hobbies or interests outside of research?
☞ Music, gardening and climate activism
Are you an early bird or a night owl?
☞ An early bird who is always slightly late
What is your dream job?
☞ Forest Ranger
What is your favorite meme?
☞ Hi Venomous
Give us your top recommendation for a narrative book to read?
☞ The Dispossessed – Ursula Le Guin
If you could have dinner with any famous person (dead or alive), who would it be and why?
☞ Viggo Mortensen – it’s freakin’ Aragorn
What do you find exciting about particle therapy?
☞ Making PT cheaper and smaller!
Tell us all the expertise [keywords] that the PTCOG-ECR community should know about you when looking for young researchers to create their research team
☞ scintillators, detector development, particle radiography, quality assurance
Share a recent particle therapy article you liked
☞ https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1470-2045(23)00184-5
What is something you like about your institution?
☞ It’s where I met my wife!
Pablo Cabrales
PhD student at Universidad Complutense de Madrid
If someone had to describe you in three words, what would they say?
☞ Friendly, thoughtful, active
What is a fun fact about you that most people don’t know?
☞ I won my school’s table tennis championship
What is the most random thing in your backpack or on your desk?
☞ Mini frisbee
Where are you from? Is there something unique about your hometown?
☞ Boadilla del Monte, just outside of Madrid, Spain. We have a very underrated palace (Palacio del Infante Don Luis, look it up and come visit it!)
Where have you lived so far and where would you like to go?
☞ Barcelona, Madrid, Manchester, London, and Boston. I would love to go back to London!
What is your academic background and how did you get to particle therapy?
☞ I did my undergrad in Physics, and got into particle therapy because I thought it was very cool and impactful.
What has been your professional path so far?
☞ Bachelors, Masters, and currently doing a PhD.
What is the main focus of your research? Is there something that you would highlight?
☞ PET imaging and AI-guided proton therapy. As imaging and AI get better, I believe we are going to see them play an increasingly important role in particle therapy.
If your research was a TV show, what would it be called?
☞ One battle after another
What are your hobbies or interests outside of research?
☞ Crossfit, football, and pádel
Are you an early bird or a night owl?
☞ Early bird
What is your dream job?
☞ Researcher / engineer at a leading particle therapy or medical technology company.
What is your favorite meme?
☞ Florida man
Give us your top recommendation for a narrative book to read?
☞ The Catcher in the Rye
If you could have dinner with any famous person (dead or alive), who would it be and why?
☞ Einstein, I would like to hear what he though of the modern world.
If you could have dinner with anyone from PTCOG, who would it be and why?
☞ My friends in the particle therapy field, because they are great!
What do you find exciting about particle therapy?
☞ The opportunity to reduce long-term secondary effects, like pediatric cognitive decline, and the convergence of computation, physics, and medicine.
Tell us all the expertise [keywords] that the PTCOG-ECR community should know about you when looking for young researchers to create their research team
☞ Medical imaging, machine learning, Monte Carlo simulation, artificial intelligence.
Share a recent particle therapy article you liked
☞ Heinzelmann F. et al. “Risk modeling of imaging changes after proton beam therapy for childhood brain tumors.”, 2025
What is something you like about your institution?
☞ The great friends I made in it and the institution’s historical significance in Spain
Mohammed Zaki Alhajji
PhD student at Gunma University
If someone had to describe you in three words, what would they say?
☞ Very respectful man
What is a fun fact about you that most people don’t know?
☞ The Master of Causing Disasters
What is the most random thing in your backpack or on your desk?
☞ Mini frisbee
Where are you from? Is there something unique about your hometown?
☞ Saudi Arabia, The Land of Civilisations
Where have you lived so far and where would you like to go?
☞ Australia & Japan. I would like to go everywhere
What is your academic background and how did you get to particle therapy?
☞ Physics, because of my interest on particle physics
What has been your professional path so far?
☞ medical physicist.
What is the main focus of your research? Is there something that you would highlight?
☞ Dose averaged of the linear energy transfer
If your research was a TV show, what would it be called?
☞ Deep
What are your hobbies or interests outside of research?
☞ Football
Are you an early bird or a night owl?
☞ Sometime bird sometime owl
What is your dream job?
☞ Full professor
Give us your top recommendation for a narrative book to read?
☞ The treasure island
What do you find exciting about particle therapy?
☞ LET and RBE relationship
Share a recent particle therapy article you liked
☞ Sakamoto S. et al. “Low Dose-Averaged LET Contributes to Local Recurrence of Pancreatic Cancer Treated with Carbon Ion Radiotherapy.”, 2025
What is something you like about your institution?
☞ The team of expertise
Marco Battestini
Postdoc fellow at TIFPA-INFN
What is your academic background and how did you get to particle therapy?
☞ I got into Particle Therapy while working on my Master’s thesis. I achieved the Master’s degree in Physics at the University of Trento, with a thesis on including volume effects in treatment plan optimization for particle therapy. I was awarded a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Trento, with a thesis on radiation biophysical modeling of the FLASH effect: from mechanistic understanding towards clinical endpoint prediction.
What has been your professional path so far?
☞ I was awarded a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Trento in 2025. I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the TIFPA-INFN, and I am the Principal Investigator of an INFN CSN5 “Grant Giovani” project.
What is the main focus of your research? Is there something that you would highlight?
☞ I’m focusing on radiation biophysical modeling in Particle Therapy and on understanding the biological mechanism behind the FLASH effect.
What do you find exciting about particle therapy?
☞ Its multidisciplinary nature and the interplay between physics, chemistry, and biology, which translates into clinical benefits.
Share a recent particle therapy article you
☞ Vilaplana-Lopera N. et al. “Tissue-specific iron levels modulate lipid peroxidation and the FLASH radiotherapy effect.”, 2025
