Harvard medical school professors to join research at western Georgia’s hadron therapy centre
Thomas Bortfeld and Benjamin Klass, two leading professors of the school, met Georgian education minister Mikheil Chkhenkeli to highlight the importance of the centre, an ambitious project paired with the launch of the Kutaisi International University in a bid to create an educational and scientific hub in the west of the country. Photo: Georgian education ministry.
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Leading professors from Harvard Medical School will be involved in research at the hadron therapy centre, an in-construction facility in the city of Kutaisi in Georgia’s west, the Georgian education ministry said on Monday.
Thomas Bortfeld and Benjamin Klass, two leading professors of the school, met Georgian education minister Mikheil Chkhenkeli to highlight the importance of the centre, an ambitious project paired with the launch of the Kutaisi International University in a bid to create an educational and scientific hub in the west of the country.
Photo: Georgian education ministry
The ministry said Georgian professors together with their foreign colleagues would implement “important scientific projects” at the centre, a facility financed by the Cartu foundation in cooperation with Ion Beam Applications, a leading international company producing proton therapy equipment for treating cancer diseases.
Photo: Georgian government's press office
IBA has already built two cyclotrons for the centre, with one device set to be used for cancer treatment, while the other designated as part of the venue’s scientific research laboratory for medical, nuclear and radiation physics and biophysics studies.
In July 2022, Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili marked the launch of the construction of the hadron therapy centre by calling the prospective venue an “unprecedented and unique” medical facility of “international scale” that would serve Georgian citizens and patients from across the South Caucasus.
Pierre Mottet, the Chairman of the Board at a leading international proton therapy company Ion Beam Applications, on Tuesday said providing treatment to cancer patients was the company’s “largest goal”, in comments on the launch of the construction of the Hadron Therapy Centre in Georgia’s west on Tuesday.
Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili on Tuesday marked the launch of the construction of the Hadron Therapy Centre in western Georgia’s city of Kutaisi by calling the prospective venue an “unprecedented and unique” medical facility of “international scale” that would serve Georgian citizens and patients from across the South Caucasus.
Georgia will boast the first and only hadron therapy centre for science and medical treatment in the South Caucasus, with the facility for advanced cancer treatment set to open alongside the launch of the Kutaisi International University in the country's west.
The Kutaisi International University, the first state university being built in Georgia since the country restored its independence in 1991, will receive the first wave of students in September 2020. Students will be able to select educational programmes in mathematics, computer science, and management.
Georgia’s national policy and strategy for open science, and prospects of the country’s involvement in the European open science cloud are being discussed in the Open Science Forum, an international event hosted in the country for the first time between Wednesday and Friday.
Prospects of the Hadron Therapy Centre of the Kutaisi International University in Georgia’s west were discussed in a meeting between the Georgian Education Minister Mikheil Chkhenkeli and Wolfgang Anton Hermann, a German chemist and the Honorary President of the University, on Thursday.