J.R. Cunningham Young Investigators Awards

The awards are presented to the top three speakers in the Young Investigators' Symposium held during the annual meeting of the Canadian Organization of Medical Physics. The presentations are judged for scientific excellence and for clarity of presentation. The Symposium is widely recognised as one of the highlights of the annual meeting, with presentations that are of international calibre.

John Robert Cunningham (known universally as "Jack") received his B.Eng. in Engineering Physics in 1950 and the following year his M.Sc. in Radiation Physics (under Dr. H. E. Johns), from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Toronto in 1955. After working at the Defense Research Board, he joined the staff of the Ontario Cancer Institute / Princess Margaret Hospital (OCI/PMH) in Toronto as a Medical Radiation Physicist in 1958. He became Chief Clinical Physicist in 1965. During his career Dr. Cunningham published more than 70 scientific papers, proceedings and book chapters, and co-authored, with Dr. H. E. Johns, the textbook The Physics of Radiology. His major contributions to Medical Physics have been clinical dose calculation and treatment planning algorithms for radiation therapy. The methods he has developed can be found in many commercial as well as non-commercial treatment planning computer systems throughout the world.

Dr. Cunningham has also been very active in the national medical physics scene in Canada. He served twice as the Chairman of the Division of Medical and Biological Physics of the Canadian Association of Physicists (the forerunner of COMP). Internationally, Dr. Cunningham served as the Canadian representative to the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) and as the President of the IOMP.

J.R. Cunningham Young Investigators Award Winners in 2024

YEAR	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
2024	Victoria Howard A step toward clinical translation: Developing a robust thermal calibration methodology for pyroelectric dosimeters	Daniel Cecchi Incorporation of gold nanoparticles as radiosensitizing agents into brachytherapy and conventional radiotherapy	Ali-Reza Haidari A deep learning pipeline for real-time conformal palliative radiotherapy of spine metastases

YEAR

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

2024

Victoria Howard

A step toward clinical translation: Developing a robust thermal calibration methodology for pyroelectric dosimeters

Daniel Cecchi

Incorporation of gold nanoparticles as radiosensitizing agents into brachytherapy and conventional radiotherapy

Ali-Reza Haidari

A deep learning pipeline for real-time conformal palliative radiotherapy of spine metastases

Past Award Winners

YEAR	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
2023	Jericho O’Connell for their abstract: Non-Coplanar, Adaptive, Lung Patient Treatment Planning On A Low-Cost, Kilovoltage, Isocentric Radiotherapy (Kvirt) System	Aly Khalifa for their abstract: Machine Learning Plan Adaptation Improves Quality Of Ultra-Hypofractionated Adaptive Radiation Therapy For Prostate Cancer On A 1.5t Mr-Linear Accelerator	Jakob Marshall for their abstract: Trajectory Vmat Optimization Using A 4pi Intensity Map
2022	Meghan Koo Expiration CT Texture-Based Radiomics: A New Biomarker for Assessing the “Quiet” Zone in COPD?	Veng Jean Heng Robust planning of mixed electron-photon radiation therapy for soft tissue sarcoma at standard SAD	Neil Johnson Accurate, on-demand neural networks for respiratory motion forecasting
2021	Allan Hupman Stemless Plastic Scintillation Detectors - A Novel Radiation Dosimeter with a Bright Future	Logan Montgomery Modelling the carcinogenic effects of neutron radiation by simulating clustered DNA damage using TOPAS-bBio	Jaryd Christie A multi-modality radiomics-based model for recurrence risk stratification in non-small cell lung cancer
2020	Irwin Tendler First-Time Imaging of Light Generation in the Eye During Radiotherapy	Nathan Orlando RmU-Net: A Generalizable Deep Learning Approach for Automatic Prostate Segmentation in 3D Ultrasound Images	Lindsay Bodart Fiducial-Based Tracking of a Transthoracic Echocardiography Probe in X-Ray Fluoroscopy for X-Ray/echo Co-Registration
2019	Julien Mégrourèche McGill University Montreal, QC Co-authors: Lilian Childress, Jack Sankey, Alaina Bui, Shirin A. Enger	Nolan Esplen University of Victoria Victoria, BC Co-authors: Luca Egoriti, Alex Gottberg, Magdalena Bazalova-Carter	Kyle Bromma University of Victoria Victoria, BC Co-Authors: Devika Chithrani, Leah Cicon, Aaron Bannister, Wayne Beckham
2018	Lee MacDonald Dalhousie University Halifax, NS Co-authors: Alasdair Syme, Christopher Thomas	Véronique Fortier McGill University Montreal, QC Co-author: Ives R. Levesque	Jessica Rodgers Robarts Research Institute London, ON Co-authors: Jeffery Bax, Vikram Velker, Kathleen Surry, Eric Leung, David D'Souza and Aaron Fenster
2017	Victor Malkov Carleton University Ottawa, ON	Sahar Darvish-Molla McMaster University Hamilton, ON	Chris Johnstone University of Victoria Victoria, BC
2016	Thomas Hrinivich Western University London, ON	André Diamant McGill University Montreal, QC	Jason Crawford TRUMF Vancouver, BC
2015	Kurtis Dekker Western University London, ON	James Renaud McGill University Montreal, QC	Eduardo Cisternas Universidad Católica de Chile Santiago, Chile
2014	James Coates McGill University Montreal, QC	Dominique Guillet McGill University Montreal, QC	Peter McCowan University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB
2013	Jihyun Yun University of Alberta Edmonton, AB	Samantha Harder University of Victoria Victoria, BC	Robert Kosztyla University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC
2012	François Therriault-Proulx University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Houston, TX Université Laval, Québec, QC	Elsayed Ali Carleton University Ottawa, ON	James Renaud McGill University Montreal, QC

2011	Melissa L. Hill Sunnybrook Research Institute Toronto	Matthew Webster University of California San Diego, CA	Irina Vergalasova Duke University Durham, NC
2010	Joel St. Aubin Cross Cancer Institute Edmonton	Mathieu Guillot Université Laval Québec	Chad Hunter Ottawa Heart Institute Ottawa
2009	Jorge E. Alpuche Aviles CancerCare Manitoba Winnipeg	Miranda Kirby Robarts Research Institute London	Lindsay Mathew Robarts Research Institute London
2008	Karl Bush University of Victoria BC Cancer Agency Victoria	Matthew Wronski Princess Margaret Hospital Toronto	Ante Mestrovic University of British Columbia BC Cancer Agency Vancouver
2007	Michael Oliver London Regional Cancer Program London	Alexandra Rink Princess Margaret Hospital Toronto

2006	Arman Sarfehnia McGill University Montreal	Saul Friedman Robarts Research Institute London	Jonathan Draper University of Calgary Calgary
2005	Melanie Davidson University of Western Ontario London	Jonathan Dysart McMaster University Hamilton	Kristen Stewart McGill University Montreal
2004	Kathleen Surry Robarts Research Institute London	Brad Warkentin Cross Cancer Institute Edmonton	William Song London Regional Cancer Centre London
2003	Stephen Steciw Cross Cancer Institute Edmonton	Mohammad Sabati Seaman Family MR Centre University of Calgary Calgary	Jeremy Hoisak Toronto-Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre Toronto
2002	(not awarded)

2001	Tamie Poepping Robarts Research Institute London	James Mainprize Sunnybrook & Women's College HS Centre Toronto	Andrew Jirasek BC Cancer Agency Vancouver
2000	(not awarded)
1999	Deidre Batchelar University of Western Ontario J. P. Robarts Research Institute London	Michelle Hilts University of British Columbia Vancouver Cancer Centre Vancouver	Jeremy Gill University of Western Ontario J. P. Robarts Research Institute London
1998	Rebecca Fahrig University of Western Ontario J. P. Robarts Research Institute London	Robert Stodilka University of Western Ontario Lawson Research Institute London	Arthur Curtin-Savard McGill University Montreal
1997	Alanah Bergman McGill University Montreal Neurological Institute Montreal	Blaine Chronik University of Western Ontario J. P. Robarts Research Institute London	Michael Kolios University of Toronto Ontario Cancer Institute Toronto