Biography
Professor Oelfke is Deputy Head of the Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging, Head of the Joint Department of Physics (The Institute of Cancer Research, London and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust), Head of the Centre for Cancer Imaging and Team Leader for the Radiotherapy Physics Modelling Team.
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His career began in Theoretical Nuclear Physics, gaining his PhD at the University of Hanover in 1990. He then moved to TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics where he worked as a Post Doctoral Fellow, initially with the Nuclear Theory Group. He then moved to the Batho Biomedical Facility as a Research Associate, looking at Proton & Pion Therapy. It was at this stage he transferred from Nuclear to Medical Physics.
In 1997 he returned to Germany to join the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg as a Research Associate, where he became a group leader in 2001 and received a Professorship of Medical Radiation Physics from Heidelberg University in 2004. During 15 years in Heidelberg, his research was focused on adaptive and image-guided radiation therapy, treatment planning and modelling and Hadron therapy.
He firmly believes that medical physics research on cancer imaging and therapy is an essential component to improve the clinical outcomes of radiation oncology. ICR and RMH, as a world leading comprehensive cancer centre, now initiates the next generation of radiotherapy treatments by combining the most recent developments in cancer biology, cancer therapeutics and medical physics in a truly interdisciplinary approach.
Outside of work Professor Oelfke enjoys hiking with his family and playing table tennis.
Professor Oelfke is a member of the Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Centre, which brings together leading researchers in engineering, physical sciences, life sciences and medicine to develop innovative ways to address challenges in cancer.
Convergence Science Centre