Professor Marco Durante, Head of the Biophysics Research Department at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, has been honored with the BIR Medal for Outstanding International Achievement. The award ceremony recently took place during the Annual Radiotherapy and Oncology Meeting of the British Institute of Radiology in London.
The BIR Medal is awarded to recognise transformative and outstanding achievement in radiology, radiation oncology and the associated sciences across the world. Professor Durante is being honored for his important work on cancer therapy with high-energy heavy ions. Professor Durante, who was also invited to give a plenary lecture on particle therapy in London, was very pleased to receive the award.
The award is presented in the form of a medal and includes Honorary Fellowship of the Institute. The British Institute of Radiology is the world’s oldest radiological society with an international and multi-disciplinary membership. Consideration of suitable recipients of the award is made every two years by the BIR nomination and judging panel.
Professor Marco Durante is an internationally recognised expert in the fields of radiation biology and medical physics, especially for therapy with heavy ions and radioprotection in space. He made important scientific progress in the field of biodosimetry of charged particles, optimisation of particle therapy and shielding of heavy ions in space. He studied physics and got his PhD at the University Federico II in Italy. His post doc positions took him to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Texas and to the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Japan. During his studies, he specialised in charged particle therapy, cosmic radiation, radiation cytogenetics and radiation biophysics.
He has received numerous awards for his research, including the Galileo Galilei prize from the European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics (EFOMP), the Warren Sinclair award of the US National Council of Radiation Protection (NCRP), the IBA-Europhysics Prize of the European Physical Society (EPS), the Bacq & Alexander award of the European Radiation Research Society (ERRS), the Failla Award of the Radiation Research Society, the Henry Kaplan Prize of the International Association of Radiation Research (IARR) and Ellen Gleditsch Prize of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters. Additionally, he has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of the European Union for the continuation of his research activities and is president of the Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group (PTCOG), the global organisation of particle therapy centers.
