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ERVIN B. PODGORSAKERVIN B. PODGORSAK

Occupation:
Medical physicist specializing in radiation oncology and teaching of medical physics

Born:
28 September, 1943 in Vienna, Austria

Education:
Elementary and secondary in Ljubljana, Slovenia (1950-1962);
University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, B.Sc. in Technical Physics  (1968);
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, M.Sc. in Physics (1970);
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, Ph.D. in Physics (1973);
Postdoctoral Fellowship:
University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1973-1974).

Certifications:
Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine (CCPM): Fellow 1980;
American Board of Medical Physics ABMP): Diplomat 1990.

Current Appointments:
Professor of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal (since 1985).
Director, Medical Physics Unit, McGill University (since 1991).
Director, Department of Medical Physics, McGill University Health Centre (since 1979).

Career:
Born in Vienna, Austria to Slovenian parents, Dr. Podgorsak grew up in Ljubljana, Slovenia and received his B.Sc. (Dipl. Ing.) degree in Technical Physics from the University of Ljubljana in 1968. He continued his physics studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and received his M.Sc. degree in Physics under Prof. John R. Cameron in 1970 and his Ph.D. degree in Physics with a minor in Radiological Science under Prof. Paul R. Moran in 1973.

After completing his Post-doctoral studies in Medical Physics at the University of Toronto as Post-doctoral Fellow under Prof. Harold E. Johns and clinical trainee under Prof. John R. Cunningham, Dr. Podgorsak moved in 1975 to McGill University in Montreal as Assistant Professor and clinical physicist under Dr. Montague Cohen. In 1979 Prof. Cohen became the Director of the newly established academic Medical Physics Unit at McGill and Dr. Podgorsak was appointed Associate Professor of Medical Physics and Director of the Medical Physics Department at the McGill University Health Centre. In 1985 he was promoted to Professor and in 1991, upon Prof. Cohen’s retirement, he assumed the additional responsibility of Director of the academic Medical Physics Unit in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill.

As graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Podgorsak worked with Drs. Cameron and  Moran on thermoluminescent dosimetry (TLD), radiation-induced thermally activated currents, and radioelectrets. At the Princess Margaret Hospital of the University of Toronto he worked with Dr. Johns on the design of targets and flattening filters for high-energy linacs. During his 30-year career at McGill he worked with graduate students as well as clinical and academic colleagues on various basic and clinical physics problems that resulted in many peer-reviewed publications, research grants, M.Sc. and Ph.D. theses, as well as novel irradiation techniques that were successfully translated into clinical practice. Examples of these are: total body irradiation with a sweeping beam, rotational total skin electron irradiation, long SSD rectal irradiation, electron arc therapy with the angle beta concept, and dynamic stereotactic radiosurgery.

Dr. Podgorsak’s most important recent publications are on stereotactic radiosurgery and basic radiation dosimetry. In 1986 Harvard University and McGill University were the first two institutions in North America to use linac-based stereotactic radiosurgery in treatment of intracranial lesions. Harvard adopted the multiple non-coplanar converging arcs technique that has been introduced previously in Buenos Aires, Vicenza, and Heidelberg; McGill developed its own radiosurgical technique, called the dynamic stereotactic radiosurgery, in which both the patient and the radiation beam rotate about the linac isocenter simultaneously during treatment so as to optimize the dose falloff outside the intracranial target volume.

During the past 10 years, Dr. Podgorsak was involved with basic studies in ionization chamber dosimetry through collaboration with several graduate students.  Dr. Corey Zankowski completed his Ph.D. thesis in medical physics on the use of extrapolation chambers in calibration of clinical megavoltage photon and electron beams. Several publications resulted from Dr. Zankowski's work; the one dealing with a Solid Water-embedded extrapolation chamber received the 1997 Sylvia Fedoruk Prize from the Saskatchewan Cancer Foundation and the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine (CCPM) as well as the 1997 Farrington Daniels Award from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM).

Education played a major role in Dr. Podgorsak’s career. Since 1979 he was involved in teaching of two medical physics graduate courses to over 200 M.Sc. graduate students and also taught radiation oncology physics and dosimetry to over 300 medical residents and radiotherapy technology students. Under his mentorship, 32 students received their M.Sc. degrees in Medical Physics and 7 students received their Ph.D. degrees in Medical Physics. In 2001 he was named to the honor list for educational excellence in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. Six of Dr. Podgorsak’s Ph.D. students received awards for their presentations in Young Investigator Symposia, either during meetings of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (three students),  meetings of the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (two students), or a meeting of the American College of Medical Physics (one student).

Dr. Podgorsak’s enthusiasm for teaching of medical physics is reflected in two recent textbooks. He edited “Radiation Oncology Physics: A Handbook for Teachers and Students” published in 2005 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria and authored “Radiation Physics for Medical Physicists” published in 2006 by Springer in Heidelberg, Germany.

Under Dr. Podgorsak’s leadership the M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs in Medical Physics at McGill University obtained a five-year accreditation in 1993 from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs (CAMPEP) and were re-accredited for additional five-year terms in 1998 and 2003. The Radiation Oncology Physics Residency program, also run under the auspices of the Medical Physics Unit, was accredited by the CAMPEP in 2000 and re-accredited for a new 5-year term in 2005.

Dr. Podgorsak has been active in many professional medical physics societies and organizations covering a wide range of issues of importance to medical physics in particular and health care in general. In the American Association of Physicists in Medicine he has served on the Board of Directors, Radiotherapy committee, various task groups, Education Council, and the Editorial Board of the “Medical Physics” journal. He also served as chair of the Local Arrangements committee for the 2002 annual AAPM meeting held in Montreal and is currently chair of the “Education and Training of Medical Physicists” committee. He was also active on the Board of the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine (CCPM) as board member, Vice President, and President and on the Board of Chancellors of the American College of Medical Physics (ACMP) as board member and secretary. He also served on Examination Boards of the CCPM as member and chairman, and the American Board of Medical Physics (ABMP) as member; on grant review panels for the National Institutes of Health in the U.S., the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC); as well as on Advisory Boards for the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada, the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Podgorsak is board certified in radiation oncology physics by the CCPM and the ABMP, and is Fellow of the CCPM, the AAPM and the ACMP. He has authored or co-authored 152 peer-reviewed publications, 85 book chapters or conference proceedings, 4 monographs, and 3 textbooks. He also gave 135 invited presentations on various aspects of medical physics research and teaching. In 2005 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Medical Physics from the Upstate New York Chapter of the AAPM and in 2006 the William D. Coolidge Award from the AAPM.

Selected Peer-reviewed Publications:

Textbooks:

Awards:

American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Activities:

American College of Medical Physics (ACMP) Activities

Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine (CCPM) Activities:

Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP)

Selected other Professional Activities:

Advisory Boards and Advisory Committees:

Family: