Inaugural lecture of Professor Gerry Hanna

Posted on: 23 January 2025

Professor Gerry Hanna is the Marie Curie Chair of Clinical Oncology at Trinity College Dublin and a Consultant in Radiation Oncology at the St Luke’s Radiation Oncology Network within the Trinity St James Cancer Institute. He also holds honorary appointments at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, the University of Melbourne and Queen’s University Belfast.

In his lecture, ‘From monotone to symphony: The transformation of lung cancer radiotherapy’, Professor Hanna will acknowledge the work of Marie Curie his Chair’s name, and how she was seminal in the early discoveries around radioactivity and using radiation in the treatment of cancer.

He will talk of the immense impact that his predecessor the late Professor Donal Hollywood had in improving radiotherapy provision for patients with cancer in Ireland and further afield. He will outline his work to date in improving outcomes for patients with lung cancer and potential future directions of research, including combining novel drugs with radiotherapy and using new technologies such as radiomics and artificial intelligence. Professor Hanna will conclude by outlining the new translational radiation oncology research collaborative AITRON that he has brought together to connect radiation oncology researchers across Ireland and accelerate research and discovery, and by this, improving outcomes for patients with cancer.

Professor Gerry Hanna

Professor Hanna completed his undergraduate training at Queen’s University Belfast and his post graduate training at the Cancer Centre, Belfast City Hospital. Following his PhD fellowship, Prof Hanna was awarded the Royal College of Radiologists’ Keith Durrant Memorial Travelling Fellowship to undertake a fellowship at the Vrije University Medical Centre in Amsterdam. This was followed by using his award of the Friends of the Cancer Centre, Pearl Ewing Fellowship to undertake an observership at MD Anderson, Houston Texas. His first Consultant Post was at the NI Cancer Centre, Belfast and he was subsequently appointed as Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast. In 2018, Gerry was appointed as Director of Radiation Oncology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia’s leading Cancer Centre. He returned to Belfast in 2021 to the post of Clinical Director at the NI Cancer Centre and Chair of Division for Cancer and Specialist Medicine at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

Professor Hanna’s research interests include the use of PET/CT in radiotherapy planning for lung cancer, mechanisms of radiotherapy resistance, stereotactic ablative radiotherapy and systemic therapy and immunotherapy combinations with radiotherapy. He is the lead of the newly formed AITRON consortium which brings together pre-clinical and translational researchers to accelerate radiation oncology translational research across Ireland.

He is the chief investigator of the Peter Mac ACRF Radiation Immuno-Oncology Program and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s “PERTAIN” study. He is the former chief investigator and current TMG member of the CRUK funded CONCORDE study. Gerry is also a TMG member for the UK’s HALT, SARON, CONFIRM and ISOTOXIC IMRT studies and continues to provide research support to Belfast Trust. More recently Gerry was appointed a Vice-Clinical Lead for Cancer Trials Ireland.

Date/time: Thursday 30^th January 2025, 6-7pm, with reception from 7-8pm

Location: Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute

152-160 Pearse Street D02 R590 Dublin

Booking: The event is free, but tickets are required at: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/inaugural-lecture-of-prof-gerry-hanna-tickets-1022373585917

About this lecture series

It is the tradition in Trinity College Dublin that newly appointed Professors are invited to give an inaugural lecture. The lecture represents the recognition of their promotion to full Professor, and the lecture itself provides an opportunity to showcase their achievements in research, innovation, engagement and teaching activities before an audience of members of the University community, invited stakeholders and the general public. An inaugural lecture is a significant event in an academic staff member’s career. In Trinity College Dublin, inaugural lectures are a ceremonial occasion; academic robes are worn by the inaugural professor and the rest of the platform party.

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