Withers, H. Rodney

AN AUSTRALIAN-BORN RADIOTHERAPIST and radiobiologist, Rodney Withers was the winner of the Charles F. Kettering Prize of the General Motors Cancer Foundation in 1998 for “developing the concept of ‘hyperfractionation’ in radiation therapy.”

Hubert Rodney Withers was born on September 21, 1932, in Stanthorpe, Queensland, Australia, the son of [Page 1028]Hubert Withers and Gertrude Ethel (née Tremayne). He attended the Church of England Grammar School, Brisbane, and the University of Queensland (M.B., B.S., 1956). Rodney Withers started his medical career in 1957 as an intern at Royal Brisbane Hospital, and from 1958 until 1963 he was resident in radiotherapy and pathology at the Queensland Radium Institute and the Royal Brisbane Hospital. From 1963 until 1965, Withers was a researcher in London, as the University of Queensland Gaggin Fellow at Grayu Laboratory, Mt. Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex, near London. It was during this time that he completed his doctorate at the University of London. Returning to Australia, he worked at the Royal Brisbane Hospital again and was then radiotherapist at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, Sydney.

In 1966, Withers moved to the United States as a visiting research scientist at the Laboratory of Physiology at the National Cancer Institute, Maryland, where he remained until 1968. He then was appointed associate professor in radiotherapy, specializing in experimental radiotherapy at the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute at the University of Texas. In 1971, Withers was promoted to professor, and in 1980 he became professor of the experimental radiation oncology department at the University of California, Los Angeles, a post he held until 1989. He was professor and vice-chairman of the experimental radiation oncology department from 1991 until 1994 and has been clinical research professor at the department of radiation oncology at the American Cancer Society since 1992. Withers was also interim director of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1994 to 1995 and was chairman of radiation oncology from 1994.

Concurrently, Withers has also held many other positions including being an associate at the graduate faculty of the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston from 1969 until 1973; member of the graduate faculty from 1973 until 1980; professor at the department of radiotherapy at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, from 1975 to 1980; and professor at the Institute of Oncology at the Prince of Wales Hospital, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, from 1989 until 1991. Withers has also been a member of the radiobiology committee of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group from 1979; served on the dose-time committee from 1980 until 1989; was a member of the gastroenterology committee from 1982 until 1989; served on the committee investigating the neutron dose, reporting to the International Commission on Radiation Units and measurements beginning in 1982; served on the task force for non-stochastic effects of radiation for the International Commission on Radiation Units; was a member of the committee investigating the mortality of military personnel present at atmosphere tests of nuclear weapons (1993–94); and was a member of the radiation effects research board, National Research Council, beginning in 1993. Withers was also a member of the education board of the Royal Australian College of Radiology from 1989 until 1991 and a member of the cancer research coordinating committee at the University of California from 1991 until 1997. He also served on the standing curriculum committee of the University of California, Los Angeles, biomedical physics graduate program from 1993.

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