Bruce A. Faddegon
Occupation:
Radiotherapy physicist specializing in improved radiotherapy with linear accelerators, with emphasis in treatment head design, Monte Carlo simulation and electron therapy.
Born:
September 17, 1956; Ottawa, Ontario
Education:
BSc in physics (honors), University of Victoria, British Columbia, 1977
MSc in physics (radiobiology), University of British Columbia, 1983
PhD in physics (radiotherapy), Carleton University, Ottawa, 1990
Certifications:
Fellow of the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine, Radiation Therapy
Career:
Dr. Faddegon started his career as a geophysicist, searching for oil and gas in Alberta and Ontario. After a few years of deconvolution and dry holes, he discovered radiation biology at the University of British Columbia. Thanks to his cross-country skiing and radiotherapy physics mentor, Dick Kornelson, he ended up snowbound across the country in the Ottawa Regional Cancer Center, training in medical physics. With clinical certification behind him, he returned to academia at Carleton University and the National Research Council of Canada (NRCC) to measure experimental benchmarks of fluence. In this endeavor he had great help and mentorship from his supervisors, Drs. D.W.O. Rogers and C. Ross, who were together awarded the Farrington-Daniels for one of the publications. As a Research Associate at NRCC he found time between diaper changes (his baby girl) to validate Monte Carlo codes against the new fluence benchmark, work on the BEAM code for Monte Carlo simulation of accelerator treatment heads, and develop methodology for accurate stopping power measurement. He continued with a combined clinical-academic position at Toronto-Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Center, with more diaper changes (his baby boy). He then immigrated to the USA to work at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), adopting a dog (Millie). He currently holds the rank of Associate Professor in Residence at UCSF with continued involvement in clinical work, teaching and research, with support from industry and government grants. His specialties are accelerator commissioning, quality assurance, treatment head design, and beam modeling, with special interest in improved precision in patient set-up, dose delivery and treatment planning, and advancing Monte Carlo methods for applications in radiotherapy. Dr. Faddegon has served on AAPM task groups and committees, including the Board of Editors of Medical Physics and has served as a reviewer for several journals. He is a certified Fellow of the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine in Radiation Therapy and a Fellow of the AAPM.
Awards:
July 1989: AAPM Young Investigators Symposium (2nd prize), AAPM annual meeting.
July 1991: Farrington Daniels Award, best paper published in 1990 in Medical Physics on dosimetry.
Special Interests:
Hiking, bicycling, piano
Select Publications:
- B.A. Faddegon, E. Schreiber, X. Ding. “Monte Carlo simulation of large electron fields,” Phys. Med. Biol. 50:741-753, 2005.
- B. Faddegon, B. Egley, T. Steinberg. “Comparison of Beam Characteristics of a Gold X-ray Target and a Tungsten Replacement Target,” Med. Phys. 31(1):91, 2004.
- B.A. Faddegon, I. Blevis. “Electron spectra derived from depth dose distributions,” Med. Phys. 27(3):514-526, July, 2000.
- B.A. Faddegon, J. Balogh, R. Mackenzie, and D. Scora. “Clinical considerations of Monte Carlo for electron radiotherapy treatment planning,” Rad. Phys. and Chem. 53(3):217-227, 1998.
- D. W. O. Rogers, B.A. Faddegon, G. X. Ding, C.-M. Ma, J. We, and T. R. Mackie. “BEAM: A Monte Carlo code to simulate radiotherapy treatment units,” Med. Phys. 22(5):503, 1995.
- B.A. Faddegon, C. K. Ross, and D. W. O. Rogers. “Measurement of Collision Stopping Powers of Graphite, Aluminum and Copper for 10 and 20 MeV Electrons,” Phys. Med. Biol. 37(7):1561, 1992.
- B.A. Faddegon, C. K. Ross, and D. W. O. Rogers. “Forward-Directed Bremsstrahlung of 10-30 MeV Electrons Incident on Thick Targets of Al and Pb,” Medical Physics, 17(5):773, 1990.
- B. Palcic, B.A. Faddegon, and L. D. Skarsgard. “The Effect of Misonidazole as a Hypoxic Radiosensitizer at Low Dose,” Radiation Research 100(2):340, 1984.
Family:
Wife: Cynthia Witwicki
Daugher: Kelly Witwicki Faddegon (born 1991)
Son: Ryan Witwicki Faddegon (born 1995)