Recipient: Harry Bartelink 

About the award: The ECCO Lifetime Achievement Award 2015 is given in recognition of personal commitment to furthering the progress against cancer.

Harry Bartelink received his medical degree at the University of Nijmegen, and thereafter completed his residency and his PhD at the NKI-AVL in Amsterdam. Since then he has worked in several foreign locations: the Rotterdam Radiotherapeutic Institute, the Institut Gustave-Roussy, Villejuif, France; Stanford University, California USA first in 1981 as post doc, and again in 1984 as a visiting professor.

From 1985-2007, he was chairman of the Radiation Oncology Division at the NKI-AVL, responsible for patient care and scientific research. In 1990 he became extra-ordinary professor in Experimental Radiotherapy at the Free University of Amsterdam and moved this position to the University of Amsterdam in 1999, in 2008 became associate professor at the University of Paris. Since 2007, he is continuing his research in predictive assays and image guided intensity modulated radiotherapy in lung, head and neck and breast cancer at the NKI-AvL. Up to now, he has contributed to more than 300 peer reviewed publications.

He currently holds various honorary positions: amongst them honorary fellow of the American College of Radiology, recipient of the ESTRO Breur Medal in, the Fletcher Award Kligerman award, Antoine Béclère Medal, Kilroe Award, Franz Buschke  award, Janeway Gold medal award from the American Radium Society, and Doctora Honoris Causa at the University of Gdansk. He was awarded the “Ridder in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw” by the Queen of the Netherlands. In 2014 he was the recipient of the European Breast Science Award and the ESTRO’s Lifetime Achievement Award.                       

He was from 1991-1996 chairman of the EORTC Radiotherapy Cooperative Group, from 2001-2003 president of European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO), and from 2003-2005 president of the European CanCer Organisation (ECCO) – formerly “Federation of European Cancer Societies” (FECS)