Tera-care logo
DONATE

OUR PEOPLE

  • Home
  • OUR PEOPLE

Our human capital

A team of medical doctors, physicists, engineers and other professionals with long experience and know-how in cancer treatments, particle accelerators and detectors, together with specialists in international development, communication, marketing, finance, and administration.

Matti Aapro
Matti Aapro President
Matti Aapro - President - is member of the Board of Directors of the Genolier Cancer Center in Switzerland and President of Sharing Progress in Cancer Care (SPCC) and All.Can. He was formerly President of the European Cancer Organization (2020-2021), Past Chair of the Medical and Radiation Therapy Department at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan and Past Executive Board member of the European School of Oncology (ESO).
Ugo Amaldi
Ugo Amaldi Founding Member and Scientific Director
Ugo Amaldi - Founding Member and Scientific Director - as CERN senior research scientist has made important contributions to particle physics and – as promoter of TERA Foundation (Italy), Professor in Medical Physics (Milan) and Distinguished Affiliated Professor at TUM (Munich) – has worked for 30 years at the frontier of cancer therapy with hadron beams. He is Doctor honoris causa of the Universities of Helsinki, Lyon, Uppsala, and Valencia, TERA President and CNAO President Emeritus. .
Frederick Bordry
Frederick Bordry Board Member
Frederick Bordry – Board Member – joined CERN in 1986, where he has held scientific and management positions. From 2014 to 2020 he was Director for Accelerators and Technology. As a long-time advocate for sustainability in energy, science, and medical applications of accelerators, he is at present scientific advisor to several institutions, industries, and start-ups.
Saverio Braccini
Saverio Braccini Secretary General
Saverio Braccini – Secretary General – has been Technical Director of TERA and at present is Professor of experimental physics at the University of Bern and Chief of the Medical Applications of Particle Physics research group at the Bern medical cyclotron of Inselspital, an innovative facility for radioisotope production and multidisciplinary research.
Marta Guglielmetti
Marta Guglielmetti Board member
Marta Guglielmetti – Board member – has an over 25 years’ experience as a senior executive championing sustainability and inclusiveness. She has held various leadership positions in the United Nations, and philanthropic organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, engaging with large corporations and major global health stakeholders.
Gaudenzio Vanolo
Gaudenzio Vanolo Board Member
Gaudenzio Vanolo – Board Member – is Secretary General of TERA Foundation. In this role he has been working for more than 40 years in the dissemination of scientific culture to the general public, in the organization of activities related to cancer care with particle beams, in fund raising, and in the nutrition of cancer patients, as leader of the Food Bank in Oncology project.
Eduardo Stadelmann
Eduardo Stadelmann Board member
Eduardo Stadelmann – Board member - has an over 30 years’ experience as senior executive in the MedTech industry.
He has held various international leadership positions in large global corporations in Europe and the US, with a focus on General Management, Strategy, and Business Development.
Mathias Widmer
Mathias Widmer Project Engineer
Mathias Widmer - Project Engineer - is a Mechanical Engineer with expertise in aerospace, railway, and high precision fluid mechanics systems. He focuses on precision with robust yet lightweight design at Tera- Care, is also professor at the Technical School of Geneva (HES) and is working on the new efficient nozzle design of the Geneva fountain.
Ruiliang Lin
Ruiliang Lin Project Engineer
Ruiliang Lin - Project Engineer - is a robotics engineer with experience in medical devices and space robotics . With extensive expertise in mechatronics design and motor control, he has contributed to various research projects in both private and academic settings, including the design of lower-limb rehabilitation exoskeletons, space-rated robotic arms, and underwater autonomous probes. He provides specialized knowledge in electronics and mechatronics design.
Elena Benedetto
Elena Benedetto Technical Director
Elena Benedetto – Technical Director – has been CERN staff and was TERA Technical Director. With her 20 years’ experience in particle accelerators, she designs novel and compact accelerators to improve performances, reduce costs and extend the access to therapy with beams of carbon and other light ions. She is also involved in technology and innovation activities in Switzerland. Elena is also leading the personnel that TERA keeps at CERN to work on hadron therapy.
Eleonora De Cata
Eleonora De Cata Administrative Manager
Eleonora De Cata – Administrative Manager – has a PhD in Economics and, having worked for over 10 years both in Corporate and non-profit organizations linked to public health and research, provides ancillary work of quality for the needs of the Foundation. She is primarily responsible for Finance, Administration, Tax and Accounting.
Ariana Cassar
Ariana Cassar PhD Student
Ariana Cassar – PhD Student – is an Electrical Engineer with expertise in electrical systems and process automation. She brings her experience from industry together with her background in particle accelerators to research techniques and solutions for optimization of treatment time and energy efficiency of ion medical accelerators to achieve a more sustainable and economically feasible machine.
Tânia de Melo Mendonça
Tânia de Melo Mendonça Research Engineer
Tânia de Melo Mendonça – Research Engineer - is a materials engineer and physicist with extensive experience in target development for radioisotope production. Before joining Tera Care, she led and contributed to key projects in target design, prototyping and validation for medical and nuclear applications in leading research facilities such as ISOLDE at CERN. With over 14 years of experience in technical environments, she specialized in materials characterization, thermal analysis, and prototype testing. At Tera Care, she will contribute to the nuclear medicine program, applying her expertise to enhance isotope production technologies and support the development of innovative solutions in the field.
Gaia Dellepiane
Gaia Dellepiane Postdoctoral Researcher
Gaia Dellepiane – Postdoctoral Researcher – Ph.D. in Physics with experience in accelerator-based medical applications, including radionuclide production with medical cyclotrons and beam characterization in ultra-high dose rate proton therapy. At Tera Care, she brings her expertise in cross-section measurements and the optimization of production routes for novel medical radionuclides to advance theranostic applications.
Staff, fellows, and other collaborators in 2025 and 2026:

Elena Benedetto, PhD,  is in charge of Technical Management.
Eleonora De Cata, PhD,  handles finance and administration.
Tania De Melo Mendonça, PhD, joined us in February 2025 as a Research Engineer.
Gaia Dellepiane, PhD, joined us in February 2025 as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Nuclear Physics, Bern.
Ariana Cassar, a doctoral student at the University of Malta, received a grant from the Tera-Care Foundation until March 2025 and continues to collaborate with the Foundation on her PhD project under the supervision of Dr. Benedetto. 
Sofia D’Uva, a master’s student at the University of Pavia, received a scholarship from the Tera-Care Foundation in the first semester of 2025. 
Project engineers Mathias Widmer and Ruiliang Lin left the Foundation in May 2025 to establish their own company, LW Technologies Sàrl. However, they continue their collaboration with Tera-Care on project mandates.

If you are interested to contribute to our projects
with your time and expertise in physics, business,
engineering, medicine, finance
please get in touch

CONTACT