About Us > Governance > Jerry Battista

Jerry Battista, PhD

Dr. Battista completed his Ph.D. degree in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto in 1977. The thesis dealt with developing "Compton-Scatter Tomography", a novel method of slice-by-slice 3D imaging of the human body, before the advent of today's CT scanners. He then gained clinical physics experience in radiation oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital, under the guidance of Dr. J.R. Cunningham. He moved to Western Canada to join the Cross Cancer Institute, University of Alberta in Edmonton (1979). There, he attracted graduate students to develop 'convolution' algorithms for three-dimensional (3D) dose computations used today for planning radiation treatments of cancer patients. Jerry is a Fellow of both the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine (hospital certification body) and Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (FAAPM) for lifetime contributions to education and research in medical physics.

Since 1988, Dr. Battista has been directing Physics Research at the London Regional Cancer Program, London Health Sciences Centre in London, Canada. He is Professor and Chair of Medical Biophysics at the University of Western Ontario, with cross-appointments to Oncology, Physics & Astronomy, Medical Imaging, and Biomedical Engineering. He became Head of the Division of Radiation Oncology at Western in 1994, and subsequently Chair of Medical Biophysics in 2004. He has served as an external grant reviewer for national granting agencies such as the National Cancer Institute of Canada, Canadian Health Research Institutes, National Science and Engineering Research Council, Canada Foundation for Innovation, and National Institutes of Health in the US.

He serves as advisor to Cancer Care Ontario on human resources planning, and is the current provincial coordinator for residency training programs in clinical radiotherapy physics. He also coordinates the activities and grants awarded by the Cancer Imaging Network of Ontario (CINO) sponsored by Cancer Care Ontario. This program provides some financial support to the CPDC.

Dr. Battista's primary focus is on therapeutic radiation oncology and on medical imaging physics and instrumentation. Research topics of interest include 3D dose optimization software, 3D dose measurements in gels using optical CT scans, tomotherapy and MV CT scanning, and fast computer algorithms for "instant" dose re-optimization needed for Image-Guided radiotherapy applications. He has published over 95 peer-reviewed articles and has co-authored major research grants, including one from the Ontario and Research and Development Fund (ORDCF) on Image-Guided Therapy and Surgery (OCITS). This has led to industrial "R&D" collaborations, issuance of patents, and commercialization of a product that is of interest to 3D radiation dosimetry researchers and to educators in the field of medical imaging. In brief, Dr. Battista supplements the CPDC Board with insights from medical physics and with some experience in the commercialization process.