L. Barazzuol
PhD, Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Lara Barazzuol is a Young Principal Investigator at the University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands. Her research focuses on assessing the effect of radiation on the brain and aims to achieve an improved biological and molecular understanding of radiotherapy-induced neurocognitive dysfunction.
Lara Barazzuol obtained her PhD in Radiation Biology in 2012 at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom under the supervision of Prof. Karen Kirkby. She then held a 3-year postdoctoral position at the Genome Damage and Stability Centre, United Kingdom, in Prof. Penny Jeggo’s laboratory, known for her world-leading research in DNA repair. This is where Lara Barazzuol developed her research interest of how the brain respond to DNA damage. In September of 2016, Lara Barazzuol moved to the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands to establish her own laboratory within the Departments of Cell Biology and Radiation Oncology. Highlights from her career to date comprise several peer-reviewed articles and young investigator awards, including the 2012 Mercia Award in Medical Engineering, the 2015 British Institute of Radiology Nic McNally Award, the 2017 Adrian Begg Award and the 2017 Bas Mulder Award. Since 2016, Lara became a committee member of the British Association of Radiation Research. She is currently project leader on grants from ZonMW and KWF (Dutch Cancer Society). |
E.M.G. Batin
Medical Physicist Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Estelle Batin is a medical physicist graduated with a master degree from the University of
Toulouse, France. Her PhD on the influence of the chemical composition of human tissues on dose distributions in hadrontherapy was completed at the Physics laboratory of Caen, France, from 2005 to 2008, under the direction of Dr Daniel Cussol. She acquired a strong clinical and physical experience with photons working in different centers all over the world (Centre Baclesse Caen – Hopital Cornouailles Quimper – Centre Becquerel Rouen - Hospital Sud-Reunion - Institut Curie Paris) including summers at the Ho Chi Minh FV Hospital. She completed her post-doc at Massachusetts General Hospital (2012-2014) and was later appointed as Medical physicist in the Francis H Burr Proton Center. She worked on patient positioning, development of treatment planning and on the clinical planning of breast and eye treatments. She implemented surface imaging for pencil beam scanning breast treatments and commissioned the Astroid treatment planning system. In March 2018, she joined the UMCG and pursued her work on surface imaging for proton patients. |
Professor S. Both
Head of Medical Physics of the department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Stefan Both received his PhD degree from the Babes-Bolyai University in 2005. His Physicist career started at the Kiricuta Oncology Institute, Romania, in 1996. He immigrated to US in 2000 and worked in private and academic radiation oncology. In 2008, Dr Both became a faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was able to advance treatment programs in conventional radiotherapy, establish and lead the physics residency program, and spearhead technical advances, including proton therapy. In 2015, he joined Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as an Associate Attending and Lead Physicist. He has served on many committees in the American Association of Physicists in Medicine and the Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group. He is board certified by the American Board of Radiology in Therapeutic Radiological Physics. He has also been active professionally as an examiner for the American Board of Radiology, as a reviewer and member of the Residency Education Program Review Committee of the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Programs, grant proposals and new technologies effectiveness reviewer.
Dr. Both has published over 60 papers in peer-reviewed journals, has given numerous invited lectures worldwide, coauthored and edited proton therapy related books and chapters. In 2017,as a result of his contributions to the field of Medical Physics, Dr. Both was awarded the Fellowship of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. At UMCG his main focus is Proton Therapy and his research interest is related to treatment planning and adaptive proton therapy. |
Professor S. Brandenburg
Professor Accelerator Physics KVI - Center for Advanced Radiation Technology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Sytze Brandenburg is professor in accelerator physics at the University of Groningen.
After studying physics in Groningen and Helsinki, Finland he did his PhD research in experimental nuclear physics at the Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut (KVI), Groningen, the Netherlands. From 1986 to 1994 he worked at the Institut de Physique Nucléaire, Orsay, France, where he played a leading role in the design, construction and commissioning of the superconducting cyclotron AGOR, that is operational at the KVI-CART since 1996. He has been directing R&D on accelerators and ion beam applications at KVI-CART for the last twenty years. Currently the main emphasis of his research is on various physics aspects of particle therapy, such as in vivo verification, proton radiography and reference dosimetry, and radiation biology. In addition to that he is working on novel methods to produce radioisotopes for medical applications and on the physics of radiation damage in electronics components for mainly space and aviation. |
C.L. Brouwer, PhD
Medical Physicist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Charlotte Brouwer is a medical physicist in Groningen since 2010 and graduated her PhD in 2016 on Geometric variability of organs at risk in head and neck radiotherapy. She was broadly involved in the clinical introduction of proton therapy in Groningen for the last 2.5 years with a special focus on proton therapy for pelvic tumors. Her research and development interests are robust treatment planning for proton therapy, auto contouring and adaptive radiotherapy. |
Professor R.P. Coppes
Head of Radiation Biology section, department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Rob Coppes is professor of radiotherapy, with focus on the radiobiology of normal tissues at the University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands. In 2000 he moved to the department of Radiotherapy as a clinical radiation biologist and started his own lab at the department of Cell Biology to focus on normal tissue effects of lung and salivary glands. His lab developed in vivo and in vitro models on purification and characterization of mice, rat and human salivary and thyroid gland and esophagus stem/progenitor cells. Recently his group developed a protocol for adult stem cell therapy for radiation-induced hyposalivation and consequential xerostomia, which is now being translated to the clinic. Currently, his group is investigating the possibly of growing patient derived adult tissue stem cells as tissue resembling organoids as well as tumor derived organoids resembling the original tumor to develop personalized medicine and study radiation-induced normal tissue effects and carcinogenesis. In 2015, he received the Bacq-and-Alexander Award of the European Radiation Research Society to recognise his achievements in the field of radiation research.
Rob Coppes is editor biology for Radiotherapy and Oncology and senior associated editor for the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics and editor for Stem Cells, Councilor for Biology for board of International Association for Radiation Research and chair of the Radiobiology Committee and member of the Scientific Council of the ESTRO. Locally he is co-programme leader of Cancer Research Center Groningen (CRCG) research programme; Damage and Repair in Cancer Development and Cancer Treatment (DARE). |
Dr. A.P.G. Crijns
Radiation-Oncologist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Anne Crijns is a Radiation Oncologist with specialty areas breast cancer and hematologic cancer, at the department of Radiation Oncology of the UMCG, Groningen, The Netherlands. She combines her clinical work with research regarding radiation-induced cardiac toxicity in breast cancer patients. She has procured funding for her research efforts from Horizon 2020.
As an MD student, she worked on cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer cell lines, in the labs of prof dr. E.G.E. de Vries, Department of Medical Oncology of the UMCG and dr. Thomas Hamilton, Fox Chase Cancer Institute, Philadelphia (U.S.A., 2000). After obtaining her MD degree in 2002, she started her PhD work on “Global gene expression profiling in ovarian cancer”, supported by a Dutch Cancer Society grant. This led to her thesis ‘Prognostic microarray studies in ovarian cancer: toward patient tailored therapy’ (2008), with supervisors prof dr. A.G.J. van der Zee and prof dr. E.G.E. de Vries at the University of Groningen. After her Residency Radiation Oncology (2008-2013) and, she was appointed staff membership at the department of Radiation Oncology of the UMCG in 2013. Her research focus is to develop and validate multivariable prediction models for radiation-induced acute coronary events in breast cancer patients that can be used in primary and secondary prevention strategies. In this regard, she is project coordinator of the European multicentre MEDIRAD-BRACE and MEDIRAD-EARLY HEART studies. She is member of the the HOVON workgroup guidelines cutaneous lymphomas, the workgroup toxicity registration of the NVRO, the board of the IKNL regional breast cancer workgroup North East Netherlands and of the Radiogenomics consortium. |
S. Hahn, MDA
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Houston, USA |
Dr. Hahn is the deputy president and chief operating officer of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. A recognized international leader in the field of radiation
Oncology and holds the Gilbert H. Fletcher Memorial Distinguished Chair. In his role as deputy president and chief operating officer, Dr. Hahn is responsible for day-to-day operations and management of MD Anderson, ensuring excellence across all business, clinical and faculty matters. He is highly respected for his clinical expertise, collaborative nature and deep understanding of the rapidly changing health care environment. He also chairs the institution’s Shared Governance Committee, which includes executive leaders, division heads, faculty senate representatives and employee representatives. Dr. Hahn joined MD Anderson in 2015 after serving as chair of Radiation Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine from 2005 to 2014. He earned his medical degree at Temple University in Philadelphia, and completed his internship and residency at the University of California, San Francisco Hospitals. He also completed a medical oncology fellowship and radiation oncology residency at the National Cancer Institute. An active clinician who is board certified in radiation oncology, medical oncology and internal medicine, Dr. Hahn’s clinical interests and expertise include both lung cancer and sarcoma. His research focuses on the molecular causes of the tumor microenvironment, particularly the study of chemical signals that go awry (known as aberrant signal transduction pathways), and the evaluation of proton therapy as a means to improve the efficiency of radiation therapy. His research has resulted in more than 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Hahn is on the board of directors for the American Society for Radiation Oncology, and he serves as a trustee for the American Board of Radiology. He is a long-standing member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and an active member of the Radiation Research Society, the American Society for Photobiology and the American Association for Cancer Research. In 2013, he was named an American Society for Radiation Oncology Fellow. |
M.S. Hoogeman, PhD
Medical physicist, Erasmus MC - Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Department of Radiation Oncology Rotterdam, The Netherlands |
Mischa Hoogeman studied experimental physics at the University of Amsterdam. He continued his education as Ph.D. student at the Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (Amolf) of the Dutch Organization for Fundamental Research (FOM) studying atomic-scale dynamics of crystalline surfaces with variable-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1998 at Leiden University with honours. After his Ph.D. he switched to the field of radiotherapy working at the NKI-AVL in Amsterdam on dose-volume effect relationships for normal tissue complications for prostate cancer. After having completed the medical physicist training program at the NKI-AVL and Erasmus MC, he was appointed as permanent staff member of the sector Medical Physics at Erasmus MC Cancer Institute in 2006. Since 2015, he has been appointed Head of Medical Physics and since2017 he has been appointed as Professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam on High-Precision and Adaptive Radiotherapy. Since April 2018, he also holds the position as Head of Medical Physics & Informatics of the Holland Proton Therapy Center.
The overarching aim of his research is to widen the therapeutic window by the development, implementation and evaluation of high-precision radiotherapy techniques. He lead the research group that developed and implemented a novel plan-of-the-day technique to accurately irradiate the highly-deformable target volume of cervical cancer patients. Current research aims to further improve this technique, translate it to Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy, and to clinically evaluate the benefit in terms of reduction in side effects and improved quality of life. With the introduction of proton therapy in the Netherlands the focus of research has shifted to proton therapy. Research in this area includes developing online-adaptive proton therapy by near-real-time daily re-optimization of the treatment plan, quantifying the uncertainties during the delivery of proton therapy that may impair the theoretical benefit, and developing methods to account for those by designing robust treatment plans. |
Professor W.G. McKenna
Institute Director, CRUK/MRC Oxford Institute for Radiation Oncology, University of Oxford, UK |
A native of Scotland, Professor Gillies McKenna graduated in Zoology in 1972 from the University of Edinburgh; he then studied in the US for an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. After postgraduate training at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the US National Cancer Institute, Professor McKenna joined the Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia in 1987, where he rose to become the Henry K. Pancoast Professor and Chairman of Radiation Oncology. His major research interest is the study of the molecular mechanisms underlying the resistance of some cancers to treatment with radiation or with chemotherapy. He is particularly interested in developing strategies to render some of the most resistant tumours more sensitive to treatment and is working to bring some of his research discoveries into clinical trial in our area. Professor McKenna has received several awards and honours including a Scholar’s Award from the Radiological Society of North America, a Career Development Award from the American Cancer Society, the Weiss medal from the Association for Radiation Research, the Röntgen Medal from the Deutches Röntgen Museum, Germany and most recently the Gold Medal from the Royal College of Radiologists. He was a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the US National Cancer Institute. Professor McKenna moved to Oxford in 2005 and is currently the Director of the CRUK/MRC Oxford Institute for Radiation Oncology. He was Head of the Department of Oncology from 2010 to April 2017. He works closely and serves on scientific boards with external funding bodies and partners. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists, the Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Institute of Biology.
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Ir. R.G.J. Kierkels
Medical Physicist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
As a medical physicist at the department of radiation oncology, UMCG, Roel Kierkels has been involved in treatment planning for photon and proton therapy. He works on clinical projects and is involved in several research activities related to treatment planning optimization, proton therapy, and adaptive workflows. Recent work focuses on automated proton planning and validation strategies for deformable image registration. From a clinical perspective he worked the last two years on the development and implementation of proton therapy SOPs with a focus is head and neck, CNS tumors including craniospinal axis irradiation and other pediatric indications. After the clinical introduction of these indications he contributes as a group leader for the clinical implementation of other treatment sites for proton therapy. Furthermore, he supervise students who work on treatment planning related projects |
A.C. Knopf, PhD
Medical Physicist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Antje Knopf is a full time researcher, mainly focusing on treating moving tumors with scanned PT and on MR-guidance in photon/proton radiotherapy.
She worked on establishing 4D treatment planning capabilities (4D optimization and 4D evaluation) in various treatment planning systems and became an expert for different motion mitigation techniques. 4D plan optimization enables the establishment of treatment plans that are as robust as possible against motion effects. Comprehensive 4D plan evaluation enabled a realistic estimation of the residual risk for dose degradation due to motion. The assessment of treatment plan quality allows to take decisions for treatment adaptation as for example the application of specific motion mitigation techniques. In the last years, she broadened her horizon towards MR imaging. She investigated the use of MR images for treatment planning, sparing patients from extra CT imaging dose. Furthermore, she investigated the use of MR images for online guidance, allowing for reduced safety margins and superior motion mitigation. Her recent research efforts concern merging my experience on PT and MR-guidance in order to establish online MR-guided PT. Furthermore, her interest is in establishing a comprehensive clinical control infrastructure for the safe treatment of moving tumors with scanned PT. |
Professor dr. H.M. Kooy
Associate Director Medical Physics, Department of Radiation Oncology Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School Massachusetts, USA |
Hanne Kooy was born in Brasil but moved back to the Netherlands, with his parents, at an early age. He started studies in Physics at TU-Delft but switched to High Energy Physics at Syracuse University and the Cornell University synchrotron. After his PhD, he started in Medical Physics at the University of Rochester and came on staff at the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy at Harvard Medical School in Boston. At the JCRT, he was Director of Treatment Planning and responsible for the establishment and operation of the Radiosurgery Facility at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He came on staff at the Massachusetts General Hospital to work on the first IBA proton installation which, at that point, required very close and intensive collaboration between MGH and the manufacturer to realize the facility. The facility treated its first patient in 2001. He has been exclusively involved in all aspects of clinical and technical proton radiotherapy since joining MGH. His main interest lies in the rigorous application of computing technology in support of clinical operations. |
Professor dr. J.A. Langendijk
Chair of the department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Professor Hans Langendijk is a graduate of the Vrije University in Amsterdam School of Medicine in 1989. He received his residence training in Radiation Oncology in the Radiotherapeutic Institute in Heerlen and Maastricht, which he completed in 1997. In 2000, The University of Maastricht awarded him his PhD on the thesis “Quality of Life in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer”. From 1997 to 2004, he worked at the Department of Radiation Oncology of the VU University Medical Center. During that period, he became specialised in head and neck radiation oncology. Since October 2004, he is professor and chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology of the University Medical Center Groningen. His special interests are head and neck oncology, prediction, prevention and treatment of radiation-induced side effects and methodologies to develop and validate new radiation techniques, such as proton therapy. Hans Langendijk was the former chair of the EORTC Head and Neck Group and co-chair of the Head and Neck Subcommittee of the EORTC Radiation Oncology Group. He is also initiator and coordinator of a number of clinical (multicenter) trials. He is (co-) author of more than 350 papers and book chapters especially on head and neck oncology. He is the current chair of the Dutch Platform for Proton Therapy and workpackage leader within the Euopean Proton herapy Network. |
Professor dr. A.J. Lomax
Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland |
Tony Lomax obtained his bachelor degree at Brighton Polytechnic, followed by an MSc and PhD in Medical Physics from the University of Aberdeen. He subsequently worked for 2 years as a medical physicist in the National Health Service, before moving to Switzerland in 1992 to work in the Center for Proton Therapy at the Paul Scherrer Institute. In 2001 he became head of the Medical Physics group for the proton therapy project there. His main research interests lie in the development of intensity modulated proton therapy, problems of robustness and uncertainty in treatment delivery and effects of organ motion for dynamic radiotherapy. Since April 2005, he has been a faculty member of the Physics Department at ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Zurich and is currently joint director of the Master of Advanced Studies in Medical Physics and the medical physics track of the Bio-Medical Engineering Master’s program at the same institute. In 2007 he was made Titular Professor in the Physics Department at ETH. From 2010-2014, he was on the editorial board of ‘Physics in Medicine and Biology’ and remains on the international advisory board. He is a regular member of the scientific committees for ASTRO, ESTRO, AAPM and the ICCR and since 2015 is the physics co-chair of the PTCOG Scientific Program Sub-committee. He is the author or co-author of 170 peer reviewed papers, 13 book chapters and over 450 invited and proffered conference presentations.
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P. van Luijk, PhD
UHD/Researcher Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherland |
Peter van Luijk started his work on the prevention, prediction and treatment of normal tissue damage studying volume effects in the rat spinal cord using high-precision proton irradiation at the Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut of the University of Groningen, where he obtained his PhD in Physics in 2003. His main finding was that the response of the spinal cord to radiation depends strongly on repair of irradiated tissue, initiated from non-irradiated tissue. Therefore he subsequently centered his work on the hypothesis that such interactions are critical determinants of the tolerance of tissues to irradiation. He continued this work first as a post-doc and currently as an assistant professor at the department Radiation Oncology of the University Medical Center Groningen. Similar to what was observed for the spinal cord, he found that the response of the parotid gland to radiation strongly depends on whether or not a limited sub-volume rich in stem cells is included in the radiation field. In addition radiation damage to heart and lung were found to mutually enhance each other. Currently he is working on the clinical translation of these findings. |
Professor S.M. MacDonald, MD
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center Boston, USA |
Shannon MacDonald is a radiation oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Associate Professor of Harvard Medical School. Her areas of research include pediatric malignancies with expertise in pediatric CNS tumors. She serves on leadership committees for Children’s Oncology Group and is involved with design of several COG protocols. She also has pioneered the use of proton therapy for locally advanced breast cancer and serves as clinical Primary Investigator the multi institutional randomized trial for protons versus photons for locally advanced breast cancer (RADCOMP). Curriculum Vitae |
Dr. J.H. Maduro
Radiation-Oncologist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
John Maduro, radiation oncologist with special interest in pediatric-oncology and breast cancer. Trained as radiation oncology at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). Achieved in 2009 his PhD from the faculty of medicine at the Groningen University. Since 2016 staff member at the department of radiation oncology UMCG and as of 2018 appointed as radiation oncologist to the Princess Maxima Center for Pediatric Oncology. |
Professor A. Mahajan
Radiation Oncologist, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA |
Anita Mahajan is a Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Before coming to Mayo clinic, she spent many years at MD Anderson Cancer Center after completing training and a faculty position in Boston. She has a special interest in pediatric radiation oncology, adult CNS tumors and particle therapy. |
A. Meijers
Medical Physicist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Arturs Meijers, a medical physicist, joined Proton Therapy project in Groningen for 2 years and, as his main focus, was leading the project group responsible for acceptance and technical commissioning of the proton therapy equipment. Prior to that Arturs was working for proton therapy equipment manufacturer Ion Beam Applications as a medical physicist and was involved in product development management for beam related sub-systems of the equipment. The career in medical physics Arturs began in the radiotherapy department of Riga East University Hospital. Arturs’ research and development interests are linked to investigating and addressing range uncertainty in the proton therapy, dose reconstruction and accumulation based adaptive proton therapy and general treatment process optimization. |
Dr. C.T. Muijs
Radiation-Oncologist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Kristel Muijs is a radiation oncologist specialized in gastrointestinal malignancies. Within the radiation oncology department of the UMCG, she combines her clinical work with research regarding the treatment of esophageal cancer. In 2008, she started her PhD project on the value of PET/CT for radiotherapy of esophageal cancer. During her residency, which started in 2010, she finalized this project which led to her thesis ‘The use of PET/CT in the radiotherapy treatment planning of esophageal cancer’ (2014), with supervisors prof dr. J. Th. Plukker and prof dr. J. A. Langendijk at the University of Groningen. After her residency, she was appointed staff membership at the department of Radiation Oncology of the UMCG in 2015. In the last years, she focusses on several research projects regarding the use of imaging for the assessment of treatment response, cardio-pulmonary toxicity and optimizing photon and proton therapy in order to achieve an more individualized treatment of esophageal cancer. Furthermore, she is involved in the preparations towards the clinical implementation of proton therapy for thoracic tumours. She is a member of the research committee of the Dutch Upper GI Cancer Group (DUCG) and Oncolifes (databiobankUMCG). |
A.G.H. Niezink
Radiation-Oncologist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Anne Niezink is a radiation oncologist working at the UMCG, with special interests in hematology and gastrointestinal malignancies. She finished her medical degree in 2009 at the Radboud University Nijmegen and became a master in health care management in 2012 at the University of Twente. She continued her career as a resident in Radiation Oncology in the UMCG and Radiotherapy Institute Friesland, which she completed in 2017. During her residency she started with her PhD, under supervision of prof. dr. Hans Langendijk (UMCG) and prof. dr. Joachim Widder (Medical University of Vienna), on cardiac- and pulmonary toxicity after thoracic radiotherapy. She currently is a member of the national radiotherapy platform for hematology and is involved in the Dutch indication protocol for proton therapy in mediastinal lymphoma.
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D. Scandurra
Medical Physicist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Daniel Scandurra is a medical physicist with clinical proton and photon therapy experience, specialising in head and neck and CNS cancers, robust treatment planning and research, and is a key member of the implementation team for Groningen Proton Therapy Centre. |
Dr. ir. A. van der Schaaf
Medical Physicist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Arjen van der Schaaf is a medical physicist with a master degree in applied physics from Delft University of Technology and a PhD in biophysics from the University of Groningen. He has a strong background in statistical information processing and specialises in statistical modeling and the prediction of normal tissue complications after radiation therapy. He is a member of the national committee that leads the development of model based indication protocols for proton therapy in the Netherlands. |
Professor dr. ir. J.M. Schippers
Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland |
Marco Schippers (1959) is Senior Physicist at the Accelerator Department of the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) in Switzerland and Honorary Professor in Particle Therapy at the University of Groningen. After his study at the TU-Delft, he did his PhD in nuclear physics at the Kernfysisch Versneller Insitituut (KVI) in Groningen.
During 1988-2001 he was Staff Physicist at the KVI and responsible for several projects in the fields of radiation detection and accelerator physics. In 1990 he initiated the plans for a proton therapy facility in Groningen and started projects on proton therapy instrumentation and radiation biology. In 1998 he worked at the proton therapy facility at Harvard University (Boston, USA) during an invited sabbatical period. In 2001 he moved to PSI, to lead the accelerator part of the new proton therapy facility at PSI. Currently he is responsible for the technical operation and the development of new techniques for particle therapy and the development-strategies at the proton accelerators at PSI. The work at PSI and KVI has resulted in (co-) authorships in many publications and participation in several consultancy and advisory committees on accelerators and proton therapy as well as invited lectures at conferences and courses on accelerator physics. |
Professor H.A. Shih, MD, MS, MPH
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Chief, CNS & Eye Services, Department of Radiation Oncology Director, Proton Therapy Fellowship Associate Medical Director, Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA |
Helen Shih is an Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School and a practicing radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA, USA. She is the associate medical director of the proton therapy program at MGH and the proton therapy fellowship director. She specializes in the treatment of patients with brain and eye tumors. Her research interests are in clinical and translational efforts to better define the role of radiation therapy in the management of these patients which include a range of benign to malignant diagnoses and both primary and metastatic diseases. One subspecialty interest is proton therapy and improving our understanding and use of this technology. Another interest is in understanding the effects of ionizing radiation on normal tissues, primarily the brain, and how best to reduce the risk of radiation-associated injury. A third interest is understanding the effects of drug addictions on the brain and developing more effective and curative therapies. |
Dr. ir. N.M. Sijtsema
Medical Physicist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Marianna Sijtsema is a senior medical physicist in the department of radiotherapy in the UMCG with a large clinical expertise in image guided and adaptive radiotherapy. She has written the image guidance protocol for proton therapy in the Groningen Proton Therapy Center. In addition to her clinical work Marianna Sijtsema is senior researcher focusing on image biomarkers in target volumes and organs at risk to predict radiotherapy treatment outcome. She is the supervisor of 2 PhD students working on this subject. Recently she received a European grant from the INTERREG program for the development of deep learning methods for medical image analysis in radiotherapy and radiology. Furthermore, Marianna Sijtsema is workpackage leader in the ProTRAIT project, which is a large infrastructural project funded by the KWF. In the ProTRAIT project the national research infrastructure necessary for the clinical validation of proton therapy in the Netherlands will be developed and implemented. |
Dr. R.J.H.M. Steenbakkers
Radiation-Oncologist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Roel Steenbakkers is a radiation oncologist specialized in radiotherapy of head and neck cancer, skin cancer and benign disease. From 2000 to 2009 he worked at the Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital in Amsterdam were he did is PhD (2007) and received his medical degree as a radiation oncologist (2009). Since 2009 he is working at the UMCG.
At the UMCG he is involved in daily patient care. He is an active member of the implementation team for proton therapy for head and neck cancer. Furthermore he is responsible researcher of several projects in head and neck cancer and benign disease, supervising several PhD-students. For head and neck cancer, his main research topic is radiation induced side effects with the emphasis on xerostomia. This includes xerostomia modeling, imaging, prevention, stem cell sparing radiotherapy techniques (photons and protons) and stem cell therapy. For benign disease, his main research topic is Ledderhose disease. |
Dr. H.L. van der Weide
Radiation-Oncologist Department of Radiation Oncology University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands |
Hiske van der Weide is a radiation oncologist specialised in paediatric-oncology and neuro-oncology. Within the radiotherapy department and the UMCG, she has an important role in the clinical implementation of proton therapy and the organisation of care. She has been a driving force in the development of the Dutch indication protocols for proton therapy in neuro-oncology, and is an active member in the European Proton Therapy Network. As of June 2018 she will be a member of the multidisciplinary medical team in the Dutch national paediatric-oncology center, Prinses Maxima Centrum. |