Current interests

Vere Smyth's main area of interest is the use of radiation in medical therapy. He has been involved in liaison with the UK medical physics community in order to ensure that NPL services and research are aligned with community needs. Most recently he has been leading the development of an EMRP project on dosimetry for molecular radiotherapy.

Biography

Vere was born and educated in New Zealand, gaining a BSc Hons in physics in 1970, an MSc in applied mathematics in 1973, and a PhD in meteorology in 1982. From 1982 to 2005 he worked at the National Radiation Laboratory in Christchurch, New Zealand, specialising in primary radiation standards and radiotherapy dosimetry. Development work on an in-house Monte Carlo code for calculating correction factors for ionisation chambers led to the discovery of a fundamental flaw in the electron transport algorithm generally used in the 'condensed history' approach in photon-electron Monte Carlo codes.

From 1997 to 2000, Vere contributed as a co-author for the IAEA international code of practice for dosimetry based on standards of absorbed dose to water, TRS-398. Since 2008, he has been working as a part-time consultant for NPL, as well as acting as scientific co-ordinator for several Euratom-funded European research projects.

Contact details

E-mail: vere.symth@npl.co.uk
Tel: 020 8943 6223