Katia Parodi Awarded the Glocker Medal

The German Society for Medical Physics (DGMP) has awarded the Glocker Medal to Professor Katia Parodi, Chair of Medical Physics at LMU’s Faculty of Physics. The society’s highest distinction was presented to Parodi at the DGMP’s 57th Annual Meeting in Bamberg on September 17, 2026. The award recognizes her longstanding contributions to the field of medical physics in both research and clinical practice.

A major focus of Parodi’s research is image-guided, high-precision radiation therapy with protons and heavy ions. This form of cancer treatment allows the radiation dose to be concentrated in the tumor while better sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. It depends, however, on knowing exactly how far the ion beams penetrate into the body.

Parodi has carried out pioneering work on methods that use medical imaging to verify the range of ion beams directly in patients, initially based on positron emission tomography (PET). Today, she and her team are investigating new radiation sources, detector technologies, and imaging techniques to make tumor irradiation even more accurate while deepening our understanding of the biological effects of ionizing radiation. Parodi also addresses this journey from physical precision toward a more comprehensive understanding of biological effects in her Glocker Lecture, entitled “Beyond the Bragg Peak: A Journey from Physical Precision to Biological Understanding.”

“Receiving the Glocker Medal means a great deal to me, both personally and scientifically,” Katia Parodi says. “I like to see it as a recognition of the commitment of myself and my team to advancing radiation therapy, as well as to educating and mentoring the next generation of researchers and clinical medical physicists.”

In recognition of her research, Parodi received a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) in 2016. In 2024, she was named a Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). She has published more than 300 scientific papers and has served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Physics in Medicine and Biology since 2021.

Parodi has also long been closely connected with the DGMP beyond her research. She served on the society’s board from 2015 to 2020 and as its president in 2017 and 2018.

The German Society for Medical Physics has awarded the Glocker Medal annually to one of its members since 2002. The medal recognizes longstanding contributions to the field of medical physics in research and clinical practice. It is named after Professor Richard Glocker (1890–1978), the DGMP’s first honorary member and the last doctoral student of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen.