The Society for Thermal Medicine (STM) recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of hyperthermia. The Robinson Award is given in memory of J. Eugene Robinson, a pioneer in hyperthermic research for 20 years. Dr Robinson first used hyperthermia as an anti-cancer therapy in the late 1960s and continued his investigations in various areas related to hyperthermia including thermal dose and time–temperature relationships. The Society for Thermal Medicine awarded Dr Leonard R. Prosnitz the 2005 Robinson award for his remarkable contributions to the field of hyperthermia both on a personal level as a clinician and researcher and as an international leader in the field of radiation therapy.
Dr Prosnitz attended Amherst College as an undergraduate graduating cum laude in 1957. He then attended medical school at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, graduating in 1961. His postgraduate education included 2 years of internship and residency at Dartmouth Medical Center in Hanover, NH. He was then a Fellow in Medicine (Haematology) at the Yale University School of Medicine from 1965–1967 and a Fellow in Radiology at Yale from 1967–1969. Upon completing his radiation oncology training at Yale in 1969, he stayed on the Yale faculty and had a strong academic career and achieved a Full Professorship in the Department of Therapeutic Radiology by 1979. He became the Chairman of Radiation Oncology at Duke University Medical Center in 1983.
Early in his tenure as Chairman at Duke, Dr Prosnitz recruited three outstanding individuals who themselves became Robinson awardees: Thaddeus V. Samulski, PhD, James R. Oleson, MD, PhD, and Mark W. Dewhirst, DVM, PhD. These three individuals formed the core of the Duke hyperthermia programme. Under the guidance of Dr Prosnitz as Chairman, the Duke programme has had a successful Hyperthermia Programme Project Grant for over 20 years. Dr Prosnitz has received many honours in his career as a radiation oncologist, including President of the Society of Chairman of Academic Radiation Oncology Programmes 1996–1997 and the President of the North American Hyperthermia Society 1999. He has been a Fellow in the American College of Radiology since 1992. In appreciation for his outstanding contributions to Duke University, an Endowed Chair was established in Dr Prosnitz's name in 1997. Dr Prosnitz has authored nearly 200 peer-reviewed publications over his career and has contributed to numerous book chapters.
Thanks to his personal academic accomplishments as well as his visionary leadership, the field of hyperthermia has been shaped by Dr Prosnitz. We are most appreciative of Dr Prosnitz's tenacious dedication to the field of hyperthermia. Through his years of leadership and support at Duke University he has established one of the premier academic hyperthermia programmes in the US.