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Principal Clinical Scientist (Medical Physicist)

The closing date is 28 July 2025

This exciting role is to act as a principal clinical scientist in a joint clinical-academic department in a large London teaching hospital. The role covers the whole breadth of nuclear medicine physics practice. From the scientific; QA and technical support of our wide range of cutting-edge equipment; work in our extensive in and outpatient radiopharmaceutical therapy service; and the radiation safety infrastructure that keeps our patients and staff safe. As a senior member of our nuclear medicine physics team of 8 medical physicists and one physics assistant you will also have a key role to play in the management and support of the team and will also be expected to help provide Medical Physics Expert support. With academic and honorary academic appointments within the department, there will also be opportunities for research and teaching.

Main duties of the job

To contribute a high standard of scientific and technical support to the clinical and research activities of the department.To give advice, training and practical support on the correct operation and quality assurance of a range of nuclear medicine, PET/CT and PET/MR instrumentation and computer systems.To perform routine clinical procedures and undertake clinical projects.To contribute significantly to the specification and development of new and existing clinical and research protocols, and the introduction and evaluation of new procedures and equipment.To provide Duty Physicist cover to the Clinical Nuclear Medicine Service.To contribute to audit activities within the department.To contribute to the implementation of relevant policies, legislation, governance, audit and quality standards.To contribute to the research, development and teaching programmes of the department and to take part in research projects undertaken in collaboration with other departments and external institutions.To undertake teaching and lecturing as required, and in the training, education and supervision of local and visiting staff; contributing to their continuing education and to the development of their competencies.To act as Medical Physics Expert for the department and any external departments supported by the Institute of Nuclear MedicineTo take responsibility for the day-to-day management of the nuclear medicine physics team.

About us

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) is one of the most complex NHS trusts in the UK, serving a large and diverse population. We provide academically led acute and specialist services, to people from the local area, from throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. Our vision is to deliver top-quality patient care, excellent education, and world-class research.

We provide first-class acute and specialist services across eight sites:

University College Hospital (incorporating the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing)

National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery

Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospitals

University College Hospital Grafton Way Building

Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine

University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre

The Hospital for Tropical Diseases

University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street

We are dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of many complex illnesses. UCLH specialises in women's health and the treatment of cancer, infection, neurological, gastrointestinal and oral disease. It has world class support services including critical care, imaging, nuclear medicine and pathology.

We are committed to sustainability and have pledged to become a carbon net zero health service, embedding sustainable practice throughout UCLH. We have set an ambitious target of net zero for our direct emissions by 2031 and indirect emissions by 2040.

Job responsibilities

For the full Person Specification and more information regarding the main responsibilities of this role, please refer to the attached Job Description.

Come and be a part of the best NHS trust in England to work for, according to our staff*

* UCLH top trust to work at in England - In the most recent NHS staff survey UCLH had the highest percentage of staff who said they would recommend us as a place to work, out of all general acute or acute/community NHS trusts in England for the third year in a row.

UCLH recognises the benefits of flexible working for staff To find out more, visit: Flexible working.

To discover more about what makes UCLH a great place to work, visit: Why Choose UCLH?

Person Specification

Knowledge and Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree plus higher (Master's) degree in Physics or other relevant subject, or equivalent.
• Doctoral degree (PhD), or equivalent knowledge and experience.
• Formal Medical Physics training, including substantial content of Nuclear Medicine, delivered through a recognised training scheme e.g. IPEM.
• UK State Registration as a Clinical Scientist through the HCPC.
• Registration as a Medical Physics Expert.
• Experience in other relevant areas of Medical Physics

Principles & practice of nuclear medicine in clinical context, full understanding of:

• oThe physics of nuclear medicine, and the principles of operation of radiation detectors.
• oThe range of diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures; including current professional best practice guidelines and standards, and important new clinical and methodological developments.
• oThe operation of the full range of current nuclear medicine SPECT, PET and hybrid imaging equipment using both CT and MR, and image processing workstations.
• oThe performance assessment, acceptance testing, commissioning, quality assurance and calibration of the above equipment.
• oExperience with the principles and practice of radiation safety applied to unsealed radioactive sources, the practice of clinical nuclear medicine and the control of occupational and medical exposures, including the interpretation of the regulatory framework governing these activities within the UK
• oKnowledge and experience sufficient to act as a Medical Physics Expert (MPE) as defined by the Ionising Radiation Regulations (Medical Exposures) Regulations 2017; noting also the EU Basic Safety Standards.
• oThe principles and practice of internal radiation dosimetry, sufficient to perform estimates of the patient tumour and critical normal organ doses arising from non-standard procedures.
• oCurrent methodologies for the processing and analysis of nuclear medicine, SPECT, PET and CT image data, including application specific procession techniques as well as registration and correction for inherent artefacts (physiological motion, scatter, attenuation, partial volume).
• oStatistical methods for the analysis of clinical and scientific data derived from the above systems.
• oProgramming, e.g. one or more of - Visual Basic, C/C++, Python, Matlab, scripting languages. Basic knowledge of website development and relational databases. Working familiarity with functionality of current PACS and RIS systems.

Experience

• Knowledge and experience of the principles and practice of CT and/or MRI in a clinical context
• Good track record of presentation and publication
• An understanding of : oTechniques for kinetic modelling.
• An understanding of : Monte Carlo modelling
• An understanding of : oWindows/Linux/Unix operating systems.
• An understanding of : oReconstruction of tomographic data (SPET/PET/CT)
• An understanding of : Clinical governance and audit, NHS research strategy etc.

Scientific and Technical Skills :

• The ability to analyse and solve scientific and technical problems, particularly under pressure.
• A demonstrated commitment to, clinical research and development.

Managerial Skills:

• Organisational and analytical skills.
• Ability to plan and prioritise own workload.
• Personal drive and direction, and the ability to work with autonomy.

Personal and People Development

• Ability to work within a multi-disciplinary team with a demonstrable commitment to participate fully in delivering a professional, high-quality clinical service.
• To undertake formal teaching and lecturing as required in support of internally and externally organised courses, contributing also to the formal and informal education and training of visitors of all staff groups to the department.

Responsibilities towards promoting Equality Diversity and Inclusion

• Being familiar with, and adhering to Trust policies and guidance on infection prevention and control. Completing all required training and education (both via e-learning and face to face) on infection prevention and control. Including infection prevention and control as an integral part of your continuous personal/professional development and included in your annual appraisal Taking personal responsibility so far as is reasonably practicable, in helping ensure that effective prevention and control of health care associated infections is embedded into everyday practice and applied consistently.

Specific Requirements

• To deliver support to the work of the PET/MR system, the post holder will be required to work in a strong (3T) magnetic field, thus the post will not be suitable for those with pacemakers, metallic implants, or other contraindicated conditions
• Physical Skills - keyboard skills, hand-eye co-ordination) : Able to operate keyboard, mouse and trackball including at ]]>