Congratulations to Jared De Chant, a doctoral student at Michigan State University and research assistant in the BELLA Center in the Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics Division at Berkeley Lab, who received the best graduate poster prize at the 2024 LaserNetUS meeting held in Austin, Texas, from July 16-18, 2024. Established in 2018, LaserNetUS is a network of user facilities across the U.S. and Canada that was created to provide researchers with access to the most powerful lasers across North America. The BELLA Center has been a partner organization from the start.

“This award not only acknowledges the hard work and dedication that went into this research but also highlights the increasing role of laser-driven ion accelerators in scientific exploration across multiple areas, specifically radiobiology,” says De Chant.

DeChant works on novel beam diagnostics and instrumentation, laser-plasma acceleration of electrons and ions, and dosimetry for various environments, including synchrotron light sources. He says the research presented in the poster, “Delivering Laser-Driven Proton Beams to Biological Samples at BELLA iP2,” shows how the use of “ultra-high dose rates in cancer therapy can significantly reduce the damage to healthy tissue while maintaining treatment efficacy.”

“Utilizing this phenomenon (termed the FLASH effect) could revolutionize radiation therapy, which is used to treat over 50% of cancer patients. Laser-driven ion accelerators generate high-intensity beams with ultra-short pulse durations, making them a unique platform for studying the FLASH effect.”

His research focuses on the unique challenges of using laser-driven ions for ultra-high-dose rate radiobiological research. It highlights recent in vivo rad-bio experiments at the BELLA Center’s iP2 beamline.

He says the award “is not just a personal achievement, but also a testament to the team’s collaborative effort at the BELLA Center. Their expertise and support were crucial to the success of this research.”

Shortly after picking up the award, De Chant, who was also a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship student at Berkeley Lab in 2019, also received a poster prize for the same topic at the 2024 Advanced Accelerator Concepts (AAC24) Workshop, held at Northern Illinois University in Naperville, Illinois, from July 21-26, 2024. A by-invitation biennial forum, the AAC24 workshop covers long-term research in advanced accelerator physics and technology and has become the principal U.S. meeting for advanced particle accelerator research and development with strong international participation.

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