NI's chair of the Proton Therapy Initiative, Professor Andy Buffler, inducted into the College of Fellows
Induction into the College of Fellows is one of the highest accolades bestowed on academics at the University of Cape Town (UCT). It acknowledges the scholar’s dedication and contributions that expand the frontiers of knowledge in their field.
The individuals are nominated for the prestigious fellowship based on their significant contributions to research in their respective fields. The honour symbolises UCT’s steadfast commitment to excellence, innovation and impact.
As Albert Szent-Györgyi once put it: "Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought". This award reflects that belief, recognising academics whose work demonstrates originality, critical thinking and impact.
Professor Buffler, Department of Physics, is an applied nuclear physicist with internationally recognised expertise in the fields of radiation metrology with a particular focus on fast neutrons. His PhD from UCT, awarded in 1998, developed innovative methods of interrogation of materials in bulk, using fast neutrons with specific applications to threat aversion in the airline industry. Since then, he has pioneered and built a substantial and demonstrable research domain defined by the development, metrology and characterisation of instruments and facilities to investigate fast and high-energy neutrons. Along the way, his research has been acknowledged by multiple organisations.
On a technical, physics-engineering mode, much of his recent research has focused on developing and pioneering the use of organic scintillators in novel compact devices for neutron detection. The two main application areas are the neutron radiation exposed to at flight altitudes and in space, and in and around man-made accelerator facilities such as those used for proton therapy. In both cases there are urgent demands for real-time monitoring with lightweight instrumentation that has traceability to international reference standards.
Professor Buffler constructed the only university-based accelerator facility producing energetic neutrons in southern Africa - the “n-lab” - housed in the Department of Physics which underpins most of the neutron-related R&D within MeASURe. In 2010, he was also central in establishing a positron emission particle tracking laboratory, “PEPT Cape Town”, only the second of its type in the world, and which features what is still the most sensitive PET scanner ever constructed by Siemens. This scanner has been adapted to image flows within industrial systems, for example, tumbling mills and froth flotation tanks in the minerals industry. These are further examples of how Professor Buffler seeks real-world applications of radiation physics; and has contributed to the development of those applications from scratch.
In 2024, he co-proposed and was appointed chair of the UCT Proton Therapy Initiative, which has as its primary goal the establishment of a proton therapy centre in Cape Town. When brought to fruition, this would be only the third such facility in the southern hemisphere, and which would not only ensure new and ground-breaking treatments of cancers, particularly among children, that are at present unavailable in the sub-continent but also provide new avenues for basic research.
UCT News article 'Proton Therapy Initiative paves the way for cutting-edge cancer treatment'
