Prof Dr Wolfgang Dörr
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Dörr, a leading researcher in radiation effects and radiobiology, passed away suddenly in his home in Vienna on 13 October 2019.
Wolfgang Dörr was born in Förbau/Bavaria, Germany, in 1959. He finished his university training in veterinary medicine in 1985, the doctoral promotion (DVM), both at the Ludwig‐Maximilians‐University in Munich, in 1988, and his habilitation in Medical Sciences at the Technological University Dresden in 1997. His career in the field of radiobiology started in 1986 at the GSF‐Research Center (later the Helmholtz Center) in Munich/Neuherberg, Germany. From 1995 until 2012, he was senior scientist and head of the Normal Tissue Radiobiology Group at the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Technological University in Dresden (TUD), with an associate professorship from 2002. After being deputy head for almost 15 years, he became head of the Section of Radiobiology of TUD in 2010. Since 2003, he is member of various sections of the German Commission on Radiological Protection; since 2013, he is also member of the Radiation Protection Advisory Board of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health. From 2007‐2012, he was appointed a visiting professorship for radiobiology at the Medical University of Vienna (MUW); in July 2012, he moved to the Department for Radiation Oncology of MUW. He contributed to several ICRU and IAEA activities. From 2013, he is member of Committee 1 (radiation effects) of the International Commission on Radiological Protection.
His primary research interests were various aspects of normal tissue effects of radiation exposure: pathogenesis, regulatory processes and their modification, quantification and documentation, and prophylactic and management approaches. In parallel, he also studied parameters and mechanisms of tumour effects of radiation and their selective modification. Moreover, he investigated the risk of radiation‐induced second cancers. His involvement in various clinical radiooncological studies demonstrated the translational aspect of his research.
He was author/co‐author of more than 320 journal publications and presented more than 480 contributions in conferences and symposia. Moreover he edited/authored 8 books. Wolfgang Dörr was member of the editorial boards of various journals, including "Radiotherapy and
Oncology", "Radiation and Environmental Biophysics" and "Strahlentherapie und Onkologie". He furthermore was reviewer for several national and international scientific journals and funding bodies. He coorganised of the regular course of clinical radiation biology in Germany and Austria, and tought at the ESTRO teaching course on Basic Clinical Radiobiology. He organised several national and international radiobiology workshops, symposia and conferences.
Wolfgang Dörr was council member (1996‐2004 and from 2009)/vice president (2001‐2002 and 2013‐2014)/president (2003‐2004) of the European Radiation Research Society (ERRS), council member (1998‐2000)/president elect (2000‐2002)/president (2002‐2006) of the German Society for Biological Radiation Research (GBS), council member (1999‐2004)/chairman (2004‐2006) of the European Late Effects Project Group (EULEP), member of the Radiobiology Committee of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO, 2000‐2011), council member of the German Society for Radiation Oncology (DEGRO, 2009‐2011) and council member of the Austrian Society for Radiation Oncology, Radiobiology and Medical Radiation Physics (ÖGRO, from 2013).
Wolfgang Dörr received the Hans‐Langendorff‐Award of the Association of the German Radiation Protection Physicians and the Hanns Langendorff Foundation (Bregenz, 1998), the Honorary Membership of EULEP (2006) and the Honorary Membership of ÖGRO (2011).