Partners in Education and Training in Medical Physics

Our division has a strong link to Heidelberg University on different stages. Bachelor's, Master's and doctoral students either from the Medical Faculty Heidelberg or the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy prepare their thesis in our division. Furthermore, both Professor Jäkel and Professor Karger are Professors for Medical Physics at the Medical Faculty Heidelberg. Our reseacher group leaders and post-docs are strongly involved in lectures and seminars in Medical Physics as part of the Physics Master's course.

To host our postgraduate courses and our summer schools, we cooperate with the Department Postgraduate Studies of the heiSKILLS Center at the Heidelberg University. The department offers administrative support to host our courses.

There is a long-lasting cooperation between our division and the Clinic for Radiation Oncology and Radiation Therapy (Head: Prof. Dr. Dr. Jürgen Debus) at the Heidelberg University Hospital as well as with the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center (HIT) in terms of education and training. Thanks to this network, our Master's and PhD students get access to cutting-edge treatment machines such as the MR Linac, the Cyberknife or the HIT to perform measurements for their research projects.

Furthermore, several researchers and physicians from these partner intitutes contribute to our teaching courses with their expertise to provide more knowledge in the clinical application of modern radiotherapy treatment machines.

The HCLA was founded as the first and only postgraduate center of a German university in Latin America and was officially inaugurated in Santiago de Chile on April 9th, 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 hosted in 2002 at the HCLA by our division and our further partners from Chile (see below). Since 2009, our division leads the sub-project "Medical Physics" at the HCLA. Together with our partners from Chile, we could support establishing the Medical Physics Master's course at UC. Furthermore, thanks to funds from DAAD we regularly offer workshops and summer schools for students, researchers and professionals to foster scientific exchange between Heidelberg and Chile.

Our cooperation with UC has a long history. As a result, since 2009 our cooperation is part of the DAAD-funded project "Centres of Excellence for Research and Teaching" at the Heidelberg Center Latin America (HCLA) in Santiago de Chile. In this context, a Double Degree Master programme in Medical Physics between UC and Heidelberg University was created and a series of regular collaboration activities with our division were initiated.

As a result of this long and fruitful collaboration, more than 20 students graduated from the Master's course in Medical Physics at UC, 4 of them continued to pursue their PhD in our division. Furthermore, Prof. Caprile Etchart (current director of the Master's course at UC) and Prof. Espinoza Bornscheuer at UC are also former PhD students of our division.

We have co-organized several summer schools and workshops, among other research activities. Furhtermore, together with CRA from Thailand, we have hosted the Virtual Day of Medical Physics 2021. 

Since 2004, there is a strong collaboration between the Clínica Alemana de Santiago de Chile (CAS) and our division in the field of medical physics and radiotherapy. More specifically, we cooperate in teaching with the Department of Radiation Oncology (head: Dr. Andrés Cordova) as well as with the Department of Furher Education and International Cooperation (head: Susana Dörr).

CAS has contributed with teaching expertise and practical sessions at their radiotherapy devices to several workshops and summer schools hosted in Chile.

CRA has had an MOU with DKFZ for research and education since 2019. Especially in the field of medical physics and radiotherapy, both institutes have collaborated in co-organizing the virtual summer school in IGRT supported by DAAD-funding, as we all seminars for knowledge sharing.

DKFZ also hosts an exchange researcher funded by CRA to further the research cooperation and promote individual professional development. The postdoctoral research is part of the research group "Computational Patient Models", headed by Dr. Kristina Giske. Furthermore, together with UC from Chile, we have co-organized the Virtual International Day of Medical Physics 2021.