Ervin B. Podgorsak is a medical physicist, educator, and administrator. He was born in Vienna,
Austria to Slovenian parents and grew up in Slovenia where he earned his Dipl. Ing. degree in
Technical Physics from the University of Ljubljana in 1968. He pursued graduate work in
physics under Drs. John R. Cameron and Paul R. Moran at the University of Wisconsin in
Madison, Wisconsin, receiving his M.Sc. in Physics in 1970 and Ph.D. in Physics in 1973. He
then specialized in medical and clinical physics as a Post-doctoral Fellow under Drs. Harold E.
Johns and John R. Cunningham at the Ontario Cancer Institute and the University of Toronto. In
1975 he joined McGill University in Montreal, Canada and remained there until his retirement in
2010 from positions of Professor of Medical Physics, Director of Academic and Residency
Programs in Medical Physics at McGill University, and Director of the Medical Physics
Department at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). Currently, he holds a position of
Professor Emeritus at McGill University.

Author of 5 medical physics textbooks, 4 monographs, 161 peer-reviewed publications,
19 invited book chapters, 70 conference proceedings, 176 invited presentations, and 228
conference presentations, Dr. Podgorsak, in addition to his administrative and educational duties,
has been involved in medical physics research, such as solid-state dosimetry, linac target design,
and development of innovative cancer therapy techniques, most notably dynamic stereotactic
radiosurgery. He was certified in therapeutic medical physics by the Canadian College of
Physicists in Medicine (CCPM) and the American Board of Medical Physics (ABMP). He is a
Fellow of the CCPM, the American College of Medical Physics (ACMP), the American
Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists
(COMP), and the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP). For his educational,
research and administrative activities he received several awards and honors, most notably the
William D. Coolidge Gold Medal from the AAPM in 2006, Gold Medal from the COMP in 2008,
and the Peter Kirkby Memorial Medal from the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) and
the COMP in 2011. On February 12, 2016 he was invested as Member to the Order of Canada by
the Hon. David Johnston, the Governor General of Canada.