Emily Draeger, PhD, DABR

As a postoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland, Dr. Draeger investigated the use of an industrial gamma camera for prompt gamma-based proton range verification. This work resulted in several awards, including the Abell Foundation Award for Top Biotechnology Innovation and the AAMP Science Council Award for Top Abstract, as well as conference presentations, publications, and a patent for the image processing techniques created using this technology.

After completing her postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Draeger took a position as a research scientist in the Division of Translational Radiation Sciences at the University of Maryland. During this time, she worked with her colleagues in the division to report on the quality of dosimetric reporting in radiobiology publications over a 20 year period. This work highlighted shortcoming in how dosimetric details are reported in radiobiology publications, including how lack of reporting can lead to difficulties in reproducing previous experiments. This work lead to a publication in the Red Journal, a Best Oral Presentation Award from COMP/CARO/CAMRT, and an invitation to speak at the 2021 Radiation Research Society Annual Meeting.

At Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital, Dr. Draeger's research has focused on brachytherapy applications, biology-guided radiotherapy, and Monte Carlo applications. Her work in brachytherapy includes investigating the use of multiple dwell positions within Leipzig-style applicators to increase the viable treatment area for these applicators, as well as Monte Carlo modeling of various brachytherapy applicators using TOPAS.. Her work in biology-guided radiotherapy has included a diverse range of topics from the expansion of clinical applications to the evaluation of novel radiotracers.