Summer Research Placement Internship

**Dalton Cumbrian Facility**
**Paid Summer Research Placements**

**Start date**: From mid-June 2023 (dates negotiable) **Duration**: 6 weeks

**General requirements**:

- Good laboratory/computer and analytical thinking skills.
- Patience, dedication, time management skills and the ability to work under one’s own initiative.
- Effective communication skills and the ability to work as part of a team.

**Projects available**:
**1. Tracking Radioactive Decay of a multi-isotope inventory**

**Summary**:At DCF, we have the capability to transmute elements to make short-lived radioisotopes of medical interest using protons or alpha particles. We are currently developing the necessary infrastructure to manufacture these isotopes and process them chemically towards making new nuclear medicines. As part of this infrastructure, we wish to create a software tool through which we can create records of the amounts of several isotopes which will be created during transmutation events and then track the activity as the isotopes decay. In some cases, the isotopes will decay down a short decay chain before forming stable isotopes. The software tool will need to access a database of the possible transmutations and produce reports of the predicted radioisotope inventory at any time with a simple and convenient user interface. An important aspect of the project will be providing well documented validation, which will be achieved through testing again a set of known scenarios. This project would be well suited to someone with a computer science/programming background with instruction being given in the relevant physics of radioactive decay if necessary.

**2. Inhomogeneous radiation chemistry**

**Summary**: When ionising radiation interacts with liquids, nanometer-scale pockets of highly reactive radicals, ions and electrons are created which can then react together. The resulting chemical kinetic system is a highly inhomogenous with the spatial distribution of the various species dictating the outcome. The chemical yields are very sensitive to the details of the reaction mechanism and hence they represent a key challenge for chemical kinetic modelling.
Furthermore, the understanding produced by such modelling is key to underpinning both safe handling of nuclear energy and the treatment of cancer patients by radiotherapy. Drawing on the methods of theoretical quantum chemistry, working in collaboration with the Mathematics department, we are currently developing a new approach to modelling radiation chemistry reactions. The student undertaking this project will be simultaneously introduced to new mathematics and the relevant computer coding techniques through a series of graded challenges whilst literature survey and ongoing interactions with members of the Currell-Webb inhomogenous chemistry research group will provide a grounding in the background theory. Once these new skills are in place, the student will be able to develop their own novel simulation in a subfield of their own choice, relevant to either nuclear energy or radiation-based cancer care.

**3. Biobox development**

**4. Automating Radiation Synthesis of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles for Applications in Nuclear Medicine**

**Summary**:This project involves further development and testing of a new platform for an automated synthesis of metal nanoparticles. More specifically, you will synthesise, both radiolytically and in conventional chemical manner, a series of zirconium oxide nanoparticles under various conditions. This approach will allow for a systematic investigation into the factors controlling the morphology and chemical composition of produced zirconia nanomaterials. A particular feature of this project is that in addition to the student involved being able to perform the synthesis manually, they will also trial nanomaterials’ fabrication using a fully automated radiation chemistry synthesis module able to do the same under computer control. A team of Engineering (EEE) students has developed and commissioned this synthesis module earlier this year. The student conducting this project will be able to test and characterise the various components of this system, finally using the full implementation to conduct automated synthesis, to be compared with the manual counterpart.

**Job Type**: Internship
Contract length: 6 weeks

**Salary**: £10.93 per hour

Schedule:

- Monday to Friday

Work Location: In person

Application deadline: 17/05/2023
Reference ID: SummerPlacements