Laura Harkness-Brennan

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Laura Joanne Harkness-Brennan is a British physicist who is a professor and Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Impact at the University of Liverpool. Her research focusses on the development of radiation detectors for gamma-ray spectroscopy and imaging. She was awarded the Institute of Physics Jocelyn Bell-Burnell Prize in 2010.

Brennan completed her master's and doctorate in physics at the University of Liverpool.^{[citation needed]} Her doctorate studied the semiconductor sensor array using the ProSPECTus camera. ProSPECTus uses segmented semiconductors in a Compton camera to achieve high resolution single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Compton cameras rely on Compton light-matter interactions to detect gamma rays, describing the trajectory using photoelectric absorption, Compton scattering and pair production. The ProSPECTus includes two cryogenically cooled semiconductor detectors (made of silicon and germanium).^[1]

Harkness-Brennan develops radiation detectors for gamma ray spectroscopy for medical imaging and Fermilab. Harkness-Brennan is interested in the application of nuclear physics to cancer diagnostics. She created the Science and Technology Facilities Council Cancer Diagnosis Network^[2] that looks to accelerate diagnosis and treatment of cancer using advances in medical imaging.^[3]

• 2010 Institute of Physics Very Early Career Award^[4]
• 2015 Women of the Future Award for Science, highly commended^[5]
• 2024 Applied Nuclear Physics Prize of the European Physical Society “in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the application of advanced gamma-ray spectroscopy together with imaging technology and techniques to the areas of nuclear medical imaging, homeland security, nuclear decommissioning and environmental monitoring”^[6]

• Harkness-Brennan, Laura (2018-06-01). An Introduction to the Physics of Nuclear Medicine. Morgan & Claypool Publishers. doi:10.1088/978-1-6432-7034-0. ISBN 978-1-64327-034-0.
• S. Akkoyun; A. Algora; B. Alikhani; et al. (March 2012). "AGATA—Advanced GAmma Tracking Array". Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. 668: 26–58. arXiv:1111.5731. doi:10.1016/J.NIMA.2011.11.081. ISSN 0168-9002. Wikidata Q59238863.
• N. Abgrall; A. Abramov; N. Abrosimov; et al. (2017), The large enriched germanium experiment for neutrinoless double beta decay (LEGEND), arXiv:1709.01980, doi:10.1063/1.5007652, Wikidata Q57714763
• A. Tarifeño-Saldivia; J.L. Tain; C. Domingo-Pardo; et al. (7 April 2017). "Conceptual design of a hybrid neutron-gamma detector for study of β-delayed neutrons at the RIB facility of RIKEN". Journal of Instrumentation. 12 (04): P04006–P04006. arXiv:1606.05544. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/12/04/P04006. ISSN 1748-0221. Wikidata Q61731523.

• Laura Harkness-Brennan publications indexed by Google Scholar

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