Mischa Hoogeman

Mischa Hoogeman is a Medical Delta Professor with an appointment at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and TU Delft on High-Precision and Adaptive Radiotherapy. He is also Head of Medical Physics at the Radiotherapy department of Erasmus MC as well as at the Holland Proton Therapy Center (HollandPTC).

The overarching aim of his research is to widen the therapeutic window by the development, implementation and evaluation of high-precision radiotherapy techniques. An example is the development and implementation of a novel plan-of-the-day technique to accurately irradiate the highly-deformable target volume of cervical cancer patients. Current research aims to further improve this technique, translate it to Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy, and to clinically evaluate the benefit in terms of reduction in side effects and improved quality of life. With the introduction of proton therapy in the Netherlands the focus of research has shifted to proton therapy. Research in this area includes developing online-adaptive proton therapy by near-real-time daily re-optimization of the treatment plan, quantifying the uncertainties during the delivery of proton therapy that may impair the theoretical benefit and developing methods to account for those, and FLASH proton therapy.

Education and Scientific Career

Mischa Hoogeman studied experimental physics at the University of Amsterdam. He continued his education as Ph.D. student at the Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (Amolf) of the Dutch Organization for Fundamental Research (FOM) studying atomic-scale dynamics of crystalline surfaces with variable-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1998 at Leiden University with honours. After his Ph.D. he switched to the field of radiotherapy working at the NKI-AVL in Amsterdam on dose-volume effect relationships for normal tissue complications for prostate cancer. After having completed the medical physicist training program at the NKI-AVL and Erasmus MC, he was appointed as permanent staff member of the sector Medical Physics at Erasmus MC Cancer Institute in 2006. Since 2017, he has been appointed Professor in High-Precision and Adaptive Radiotherapy at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.