Michael Baumann, new scientific director of the German Cancer Research Center, is the new spokesperson of DKTK

"To be the scientific director of the German Cancer Research Center is a great challenge and a responsible task," says Michael Baumann. “The DKFZ is one of the leading cancer research centers in the world. With its outstanding scientists, the German Cancer Research Center offers ideal conditions for the understanding of the biology of cancer diseases and the development of more effective preventive measures, new diagnoses and more effective therapeutic methods in confronting this widespread disease. One of our central tasks for the future is to tailor new methods of treatment to the specific needs of the individual patient and that research results can be brought more quickly to them. In order to arrive at this point, the German Cancer Research Center has set up the strategic partnerships of DKTK with leading university hospitals in Germany."

Prof. Johanna Wanka, the Federal Minister of Education and Research says: "In Michael Baumann we have gained an outstanding physician and scientist. He is the ideal person suited to combine basic and applied cancer research. Only through this approach can the successful implementation of scientific findings be made available more quickly and effectively to provide for the patients’ medical needs."

Baumann will lead the DKFZ together with administrative director Prof. Josef Puchta. "I have known Michael Baumann now for five years and have worked closely together with him at the German Cancer Consortium," says Josef Puchta. "I am very pleased with this excellent choice and I am happy that we have won an internationally proven cancer specialist, researcher and science manager. Michael Baumann will contribute a great deal of knowhow and I have experienced him as a dynamic person over the years.“

Baumann will maintain his close ties to Dresden through the DKTK, the NCT, the Krebsinformationsdienst (cancer information service) and the National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology. “However, Dresden is in an excellent position: Mechthild Krause is now head of the DKTK center. She has also taken over the coordination of the DKTK research program Radiation Oncology and Imaging and the management of the NCT center, together with Martin Bornhäuser and Jürgen Weitz,” says Michael Baumann.

CV Professor Michael Baumann

 At present Michael Baumann is Professor of Radiation Oncology at the TU Dresden, Clinical Director of Radio Therapy and Radio Oncology at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus. He also is director of the Institute of Radiooncology at the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) as well as director of the OncoRay Center for Radiation Research in Oncology. In recent years he was the driving force for today’s excellent cooperation between the cancer research locations Dresden and Heidelberg. The most recent example is the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Dresden, in 2015 that will be built in partnership with the DKFZ as a second location in addition to Heidelberg. Moreover he is the founding director of the University Cancer Center Dresden (UCC) and spokesperson of the location Dresden in the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK). 

Baumann received his doctorate as a medical doctor in 1988 in Hamburg. Until the end of 1989 he was active as a researcher at Harvard Medical School at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In 1994 following his training in radiation therapy he qualified as a radiation therapist in Hamburg. In 1995 he led radiation oncology research at the Carl Gustav Carus Medical Faculty in Dresden. His scientific focus areas lie in the development of individualized biological radiation oncology, high precision/proton therapy as well as the treatment of lung, head and throat tumors.

Baumann has published more than 350 scientific articles in medical journals. He is the editor-in-chief of the leading international Journal for Radiation Oncology, Radiation Therapy and Oncology. In 2004 Michael Baumann was elected as a member of the Leopoldina National Academy of Science. He has received a number of academic awards, including the Gerhard Hess Prize (DFG 1997), the Michael Fry Award from the American Radiation Research Association (2002), the Regaud Goldmedal of European of Radiation Oncologists (2012) and the Röntgenplakette by the city of Remscheidt (2016). Michael Bauman was president of the European Society of Radiation Therapy (ESTRO) the European Cancer Society (ECCO) and the German Society of Radiation Oncology (DEGRO).

A photo of Michael Baumann is available for download at:
http://www.dkfz.de/de/presse/pressemitteilungen/2016/bilder/Prof-Michael-Baumann.jpg

The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) with its more than 3,000 employees is the largest biomedical research institute in Germany. At DKFZ, more than 1,000 scientists investigate how cancer develops, identify cancer risk factors and endeavor to find new strategies to prevent people from getting cancer. They develop novel approaches to make tumor diagnosis more precise and treatment of cancer patients more successful. The staff of the Cancer Information Service (KID) offers information about the widespread disease of cancer for patients, their families, and the general public. Jointly with Heidelberg University Hospital, DKFZ has established the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg, where promising approaches from cancer research are translated into the clinic. In the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK), one of six German Centers for Health Research, DKFZ maintains translational centers at seven university partnering sites. Combining excellent university hospitals with high-profile research at a Helmholtz Center is an important contribution to improving the chances of cancer patients. DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centers, with ninety percent of its funding coming from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the remaining ten percent from the State of Baden-Württemberg.

Contact:

Dr. Stefanie Seltmann
Head of Press and Public Relations
German Cancer Research Center
Im Neuenheimer Feld 280
D-69120 Heidelberg
T: +49 6221 42 2854
F: +49 6221 42 2968
presse@dkfz.de

Dr. Sibylle Kohlstädt
Press and Public Relations
German Cancer Research Center
Im Neuenheimer Feld 280
D-69120 Heidelberg
T: +49 6221 42 2843
F: +49 6221 42 2968
Email: presse@dkfz.de