National and International ­Partners in Education and Training in Medical Physics

Our department is closely linked to Heidelberg University at various levels. Bachelor's and Master's students and doctoral candidates from the Medical Faculty Heidelberg, the Medical Faculty Mannheim or the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy write their theses in our department. In addition, both Professor Jäkel and Professor Karger are Professors of Medical Physics at the Medical Faculty Heidelberg. Our research group leaders and post-docs are also involved in lectures and seminars on medical physics as part of the Master's degree program in Physics.

Addionally, we cooperate with the Department Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning of the heiSKILLS Competence and Language Center of Heidelberg University to conduct our courses, workshops and summer schools. The department is responsible for the administrative coordination (e.g. administration of teaching staff) of our courses.

There is a long-standing collaboration between our department and the Department of Radiation Oncology and Radiotherapy (Head: Prof. Dr. Dr. Jürgen Debus) at Heidelberg University Hospital as well as the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center (HIT) in the area of education and training. Thanks to this network, our working groups and students have access to state-of-the-art treatment equipment such as the MR Linac, the Cyberknife or the HIT to carry out measurements for their research projects.

In addition, the clinical and scientific staff of the aforementioned institutes use their expertise in the fields of radiotherapy and medical physics in our courses to impart their knowledge of the clinical application of modern radiotherapy equipment.

The HCLA is the first and only postgraduate center of a German university in Latin America. It was officially opened in Santiago de Chile on April 9, 2002. Since 2009, after winning a prestigious academic quality competition organized by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and funded by the German Foreign Office, the HCLA became one of the five Centers of Excellence in Research and Teaching that Germany has worldwide, consisting of four sub-projects in different areas. 

The first summer school in Chile in medical physics was organized in 2002 by our department and our Chilean partners (see below) at the HCLA. Since 2009, our department has been leading the "Medical Physics" sub-project at the HCLA Center of Excellence. Together with our Chilean partners, we were able to support the establishment of the Master's program "Medical Physics" at UC.

In addition, thanks to DAAD funding, we regularly offer workshops and summer schools for students, researchers and professionals to promote scientific exchange between Heidelberg and Chile.

Our collaboration with UC has a long tradition and has been part of the DAAD-funded project "Centers of Excellence for Research and Teaching" at the Heidelberg Center Latin America (HCLA) in Santiago de Chile since 2009. In this context, a double-degree Master's program in Medical Physics was established between UC and UHD and a series of regular activities such as workshops and summer schools were initiated with our department.

As a result of this long and fruitful collaboration, more than 20 students graduated from the Master's program "Medical Physcis" at UC, four of them continued their PhD Theses in our department. In addition, Prof. Caprile Etchart and Prof. Espinoza Bornscheuer (current head of the Master's program at UC) are also former doctoral students of our department.

In addition to research activities, we have jointly organized numerous summer schools and workshops as well as the Virtual International Day of Medical Physics 2021 together with the CRA from Thailand.

Since 2004, there has been close cooperation between the Clínica Alemana de Santiago de Chile (CAS) and our department in the field of medical physics and radiotherapy. Specifically, we cooperate in teaching with Dr. Andrés Cordova from the Department of Radiotherapy and with the Department of Continuing Education and International Cooperation.

At our workshops and summer schools in Chile, the CAS has granted access to its radiation equipment in order to carry out practical units of the courses.

The DKFZ and the CRA have signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for research and teaching since 2019. In the field of medical physics and radiotherapy in particular, both institutes have held the virtual summer school on "IGRT" thanks to the financial support of the DAAD. In addition, joint online seminars were held as well as the Virtual International Day of Medical Physics 2021 was organized together with the UC.

To deepen the existing research cooperation, a post-doc from the CRA worked in our department in Dr. Kristina Giske's "Computational Patient Models" working group for two years. 

Since 2025, Prof. Jäkel and Prof. Karger from our division as well as PD Dr. Semi Harrabi from the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center (HIT) have been teaching the elective module “Particle Therapy” in the new curriculum of the Master's Program in Medical Physics at CRA. Furthermore, Prof. Jäkel is a guest lecturer in the PhD Program at CRA for several years.