Oleksandra Ivashchenko

I am a physicist with a broad background in imaging physics. After obtaining my MSc in Applied Physics (Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv, Ukraine), I moved to industry and worked as a Biomechanics R&D Engineers for a rapid prototyping company, focusing on development on personalised surgical cutting guides for reconstructive orthopaedic surgeries. In 2013, I relocated to the Netherlands to pursue a PhD in preclinical molecular imaging under supervision of prof. F. Beekman (Biomedical Imaging, TU Delft). It was a challenging and highly multi-disciplinary project, that brought my attention to image-guided surgery and motivated to apply for a postdoctoral position within the group of prof. Theo Ruers.

Within the 2.5 years postdoc at the NKI (2016-2018), I was involved in technical development and clinical implementation of novel applications of surgical navigation and image-guided surgery. This project required close collaboration with medical physics department of the NKI, what enabled me to get to know their daily work better, and inspired to apply for a Dutch medical physics residency program. As of July 2018, I am following the national residency program in medical physics at the department of Radiology of the Leiden University Medical Center, yet still collaborate with the Theo Ruers group within various projects related for image processing.