Please contact us to discuss potential research projects. We will also connect you with other potential partners at UCT, if necessary.

Instrumentation development

  • Compact neutron spectrometers: A spherical plastic scintillator read out by silicon photomultipliers, with low-power electronics (including pulse-shape discrimination for portable neutron/gamma detectors) and spectrum unfolding. Characterised from 1-120 MeV at the n-lab, AMANDE (ASNR, France), PIAF (PTB, Germany) and iThemba LABS.
  • Digital acquisition and detector response: Digital data acquisition for fast neutron metrology, benchmarked against analogue NIM systems, and detector response functions measured at reference fast and high-energy neutron facilities.
  • Reconfigurable detector arrays: Clinical PET detector arrays rebuilt as event-level instruments for coincidence metrology, gamma-ray correlations and positron physics.

Radiation metrology and applications

  • Neutron reference fields: The n-lab fields are characterised for detector calibration. The iThemba LABS fast neutron beam is being developed to ISO 17025 as a reference standard, with a key comparison planned against RCNP, Osaka.
  • Nuclear methods for materials and activity: Elemental analysis of bulk materials such as concrete and mineral ores by fast neutron transmission, scattering and activation, and gamma–gamma angular correlations for absolute activity measurement.
  • Radiation at flight altitudes and in space: Dosemeters and compact neutron detectors for aircraft and space missions, and the Cosmic On Air citizen-science project (https://cosmic-on-air.org/).
  • Industrial flows: Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) and related nuclear techniques for particulate and multiphase flow in minerals processing.

Proton therapy and medical physics

  • Dose verification in proton therapy: CZT Compton cameras that image proton dose in vivo from prompt gamma rays, with a nozzle-mounted clinical system under development with the University of Maryland. This includes the effect of secondary neutrons from a 66 MeV proton beam, studied by measurement and Geant4 simulation.
  • UCT Proton Therapy Initiative: Design of the research vaults, shielding and beamlines for the proposed 30 MeV cyclotron (protontherapy.uct.ac.za).
  • Other medical physics: Cellular-scale dosimetry of Auger-emitting radionuclides for targeted therapy, and a point-of-care low-field MRI scanner for early diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis in children.

Nuclear Physics

  • Nuclear structure: Gamma-ray and electron spectroscopy of excited states, and gamma-ray production in proton-induced reactions, using iThemba LABS beamlines. Coulomb excitation of a ¹⁵²Yb radioactive beam at CERN-ISOLDE to study shape coexistence in heavy nuclei.

Electrical metrology and quantum devices

  • Single-electron pumps: Quantum standards for electrical current in GaAs/AlGaAs, including multiple-electron and Landau-level pumping, and spin manipulation in InGaAs two-dimensional electron gases with UCL and the University of Cambridge.
  • Topological materials: First-principles calculations of topological phases in Weyl semimetals and related compounds under strain and electric field.

Measurement education and the SI

  • How students understand measurement: Research on uncertainty and on the language of experimental measurement in the physics laboratory.
  • Development of teaching materials: The ISO-GUM workbook for university laboratories, school-curriculum material developed with NMISA, SI posters and the MeASURe-UP board game.