CAREER PROSPECTS with Fernando Cerrón: Protontherapy

“Career prospects” is a series of talks by IMDEA Nanociencia alumni to give their view of their stay as researchers at IMDEA Nanociencia and their subsequent professional careers, with the objective of providing PhD students a vision for their professional development. The series will be held online in English, and will be open for everyone (no registration required).

Dr. Fernando Cerrón is a medical physicist at Centro de Protonterapia, part of the Quirónsalud Group. After earning a degree in Physics, he completed a master’s degree in Biophysics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), followed by a PhD in Biophysics at the IMDEA Nanociencia Institute, under the supervision of Prof. Borja Ibarra. His doctoral research focused on the biophysics of human mitochondrial DNA replication.

Upon completing the PhD, Fernando successfully passed the national competition exam to become a Medical Physicist (RFIR), obtaining a three-year residency position at Hospital Universitario de Canarias, a public hospital in Spain. After finishing the residency, he joined the Centro de Protonterapia of the Quirónsalud Group as a Radiophysicist. In this role, Fernando applies the principles of radiation–matter interaction to design and optimize radiation therapy treatments for cancer patients.