Former BARC scientist awarded Fellowship by IUPESM

Chennai: The International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM), a global organisation of over 1,50,000 medical physicists and engineers has recently chosen U. Madhvanath, formerly Head, Division of Radiological Protection, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) as one of its Fellows.

According to IUPESM, the Fellowship is awarded to the most prominent leader of the union during the past 40 years.

IUPESM was formed in 1980 and is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

“Madhvanath is one among the handful of scientists whose efforts succeeded in establishing medical physics on a sound footing in India,” former Secretary, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) told IANS.

Thanks to them, the availability of Medical Physicist cum Radiological Safety Officers is mandatory in the radiotherapy departments in India. These professionals are among the multidisciplinary group essential for successful radiotherapy.

Medical physicists are scientists in medicine, a new breed of professionals who are concerned with the application of physical energy, concepts and methods to the diagnosis and treatment of human disease, Parthasarathy said.

Eighty eight-year-old Bengaluru based Madhvanath was Vice-President of IUPESM from 1994-1997. He served in various IUPESM committees. He was the President of the International Organization for Medical Physics from 1991-1994. He was the first Indian to occupy that post.

Speaking to IANS, Madhvanath said he was happy at the development and he is now focussed on spiritual activities.