Professor Jaap Velthuis
Current positions
Professor of Physics
School of Physics
Contact
Press and media
Many of our academics speak to the media as experts in their field of research. If you are a journalist, please contact the University’s Media and PR Team:
Research interests
My core research focuses on detector development for future particle physics experiments and its spin-offs, mainly in the fields of nuclear waste management, radiation measurements, radiotherapy and homeland security. I focus on the design, development and characterisation of novel radiation detectors, the accompanying data analysis and radiation damage effects in detectors and electronics.
I have been working on the development of sensors aimed towards the Linear Collider with strong emphasis on Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) based systems. Using the knowledge and experience from particle physics, we are now developing a system for radiotherapy verification. We have shown treatment beam shape measurements with most excellent precision and invented a completely novel way for real time dosimetry as well.
In particle physics, I focus on the development of a new Velo detector, the innermost and most important detector of the LHCb experiment at CERN. I am also involved in the detector development for the mu3e experiment that will be built at PSI and am joining the CEPC effort.
Over the years, I developed a strong interest in cosmic ray tomography for nuclear waste characterisation and homeland security. Inintially we started to develop a scanner to detect lumps of high-Z material hidden in shipping containers using cosmic rays to prevent nuclear devices being smuggled into the country. The technique we developed using cosmic radiation is amongst others also applicable for nuclear waste management. We built detectors and have developed algorithms to identify the material and measure the size of small objects embedded in concrete. Furthermore, we are now able to find air bubbles in concrete as well. Currently, I am the work package manager for the cosmic ray tomography work package in the H2020 funded CHANCE project. CHANCE is aimed at characterisation of conditioned nuclear waste. Muon tomography is one of the core work packages. Furthermore, we are developing the technique for civil nuclear engineering inspections.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
International Exchanges 2022 Cost Share (JSPS and NSTC) : Innovation of targeted alpha-particle therapy - Interdisciplinary study between radiation physics, chemistry, and biology on DNA damage
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of PhysicsDates
10/03/2023 to 09/03/2025
ML2C - Machine Learning for robust, real-time dosimetry and MultiLeaf Collimator verification
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of PhysicsDates
01/10/2019 to 31/03/2020
Enhancing the capability of MAPS for radiotherapy verification
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of PhysicsDates
01/11/2018 to 01/12/2021
8100 Enhancing the capability of MAPS for radiotherapy verification
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of PhysicsDates
01/10/2018 to 30/09/2020
CiC Novel dosimetry diodes After RP left
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of PhysicsDates
01/07/2017 to 30/06/2018
Thesis supervisions
Verification of GEANT4-DNA and a simplified DNA model
Supervisors
Gamma detector system for nuclear fingerprinting
Supervisors
A large area MAPS-based upstream device for radiotherapy verification
Supervisors
Imaging and Material Identification of Nuclear Waste with Muon Scattering Tomography
Supervisors
Spatial Resolution Studies for the LHCb VELO Upgrade
Supervisors
A Monte Carlo simulation of DNA damage in BNCT radiotherapy
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
21/08/2024Amplitude analysis and branching fraction measurement of B+ → D*- Ds+ π+ decays
Journal of High Energy Physics
Amplitude analysis of the radiative decay Bs0→ K +K −γ
Journal of High Energy Physics
Comprehensive analysis of local and nonlocal amplitudes in the B0 → K*0μ+μ− decay
Journal of High Energy Physics
Dose and DNA damage modelling of diffusing alpha-emitters radiation therapy using Geant4
Physica Media
Measurement of the effective leptonic weak mixing angle
Journal of High Energy Physics