Peter G. Maxim

Biography

Peter G. Maxim, Ph.D., is Professor and Vice Chair of Medical Physics in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, where he also serves as Director of the Medical Physics Residency Program and holds a faculty appointment at the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is board certified in Therapeutic Radiological Physics by the American Board of Radiology. Prior to joining UCI, he held faculty appointments at Stanford University School of Medicine for over a decade and at Indiana University School of Medicine.

Maxim's research focuses on two areas: FLASH radiotherapy—the delivery of radiation at ultra-high dose rates—and novel radiotherapy delivery systems. He is a co-inventor on patents for the Pluridirectional High-energy Agile Scanning Electron Radiotherapy (PHASER) system, a platform designed to translate FLASH radiotherapy into clinical practice. He has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on multiple extramural grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and private foundations supporting this research. He is a member of the NCI-organized Grid, Lattice, and FLASH work group and the AAPM Task Group 359 on FLASH ultra-high dose rate radiation dosimetry. His work has resulted in more than 113 peer-reviewed publications and two book chapters.

Maxim has been an active contributor to the professional community, serving on the Investment Advisory Board of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) since 2012 and as Medical Physics Co-Chair for Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) trial 1008. He has been a frequent invited speaker at national and international conferences, including the annual meetings of ASTRO, AAPM, and the Radiation Research Society, addressing topics in FLASH radiotherapy and advanced treatment delivery. He received the Henry S. Kaplan Memorial Prize for Teaching in Radiation Oncology from Stanford University in 2013.

Education

• B.S. in Physics, Technical University, Berlin, Germany, 1994
• M.Sc. in Physics, Technical University, Berlin, Germany, 1997
• Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in Biophysics, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, 2003

Distinctions

• Teacher of the Year Award – Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology (ARRO), 2009
• Best in Physics – Therapy Award, AAPM 56th Annual Meeting, 2014
• NaFöG (Nachwuchs Förderungs Gesetz, Germany) Young Investigator Fellowship, 1998
• DAAD (German Academic Exchange Program) Fellowship, 2000
• Henry S. Kaplan Memorial Prize for Teaching in Radiation Oncology, 2013
• Society of Molecular Imaging - Young Investigator Travel Scholarship, 2004
• Stanford Cancer Center – Orsak Innovation Fund, 2006