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For several years I maintained a regular teaching activity at the University of La Frontera, traveling periodically to Temuco to teach Radiobiology and Radiotherapy courses. However, as time went by, the professional and personal demands associated with these trips made it increasingly difficult to maintain this commitment, so I decided to close this stage of my academic career.

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After the training received at the Summer School in Medical Physics organized by the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Santiago, I had the opportunity to join the efforts carried out by Dr. Rodolfo Figueroa and Dr. Marcia García to develop a training program for medical physicists in Chile. This joint work culminated in the creation, in 2008, of the Master's Degree in Medical Physics at the University of La Frontera, the first program of this type in the country.

As part of the academic body of the program, I taught the subjects of Radiobiology and Radiotherapy for several years, traveling periodically to Temuco to participate in the training of professionals from different areas of science and engineering interested in specializing in Medical Physics.

The classes integrated the physical foundations of the interaction of radiation with biological matter and tissues with their clinical applications in radiotherapy. In addition to reviewing the principles of radiobiology, dosimetry, treatment planning, and quality assurance, the emphasis was on understanding the physical mechanisms underlying each procedure and developing a form of reasoning based on the scientific method.

The experience previously acquired both in industrial research and in scientific consulting, together with the training received at the DKFZ, allowed us to provide a vision that combined physical rigor with the resolution of real problems, contributing to the development of one of the first Chilean programs dedicated to the systematic training of medical physicists.

The image corresponds to an artistic reconstruction of Dr. Willy Gerber teaching a class on Radiobiology and Radiotherapy in the Master's Degree in Medical Physics at the University of La Frontera.

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Radiobiology constitutes one of the fundamental pillars of Medical Physics by explaining how ionizing radiation interacts with biological systems and how these mechanisms determine both the therapeutic efficacy and the adverse effects of treatments. In the Master's Degree in Medical Physics at the University of La Frontera, this course aimed to integrate the principles of Physics, Biology and Medicine to scientifically understand the response of cells, tissues and organisms to radiation.

The course progressively addressed the complete chain of processes that begins with the physical interaction of radiation with matter, continues with the production of ionizations and free radicals, molecular damage to DNA and cellular repair mechanisms, to finally analyze cell survival, the response of normal and tumor tissues, and clinical applications in radiotherapy. Likewise, dose-response models, the linear-quadratic model, the principles of fractionation, the "5 Rs" of Radiobiology, deterministic and stochastic effects, radiosensitivity, radioprotectors and the biological foundations that support the planning and optimization of modern cancer treatments were studied.

The orientation of the course sought for students to understand that behind each clinical decision there is a quantifiable physical and biological model. Rather than memorizing concepts, the goal was to develop the ability to analyze the mechanisms that govern the biological response to radiation and apply this knowledge to improve the safety, effectiveness and quality of radiotherapy treatments.

The figure shows a general outline of the contents developed in the Radiobiology course taught in the Master's Degree in Medical Physics at the University of La Frontera, including the main physical and biological mechanisms that determine the effects of radiation on living systems.

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Radiotherapy represents one of the most advanced applications of Physics in Medicine, integrating physical principles, engineering, computer science, biology and medicine to administer ionizing radiation with maximum precision on a tumor and simultaneously minimize the dose received by healthy tissues. In the Master's Degree in Medical Physics at the University of La Frontera, this course had the purpose of giving students a complete vision of the radiotherapeutic process, from the physical foundations to its clinical application.

The course began with the study of the interactions of radiation with matter and the principles of clinical dosimetry, to later analyze the operation of linear accelerators, the production and characterization of photon and electron beams, the calibration of equipment and international dose measurement protocols. On this basis, the fundamentals of three-dimensional treatment planning were developed, the calculation of dose distributions, dose-volume histograms (DVH), the definition of target volumes and organs at risk, and modern irradiation techniques such as 3D-CRT, IMRT, VMAT, IGRT, radiosurgery and brachytherapy.

Likewise, the course incorporated the radiobiological foundations that support the selection of treatment regimens, fractionation, tolerance of normal tissues, and therapeutic optimization. A special emphasis was given to quality assurance and control, treatment verification, patient safety and interdisciplinary work between medical physicists, radiation oncologists, medical technologists and clinical engineers.

The course orientation sought to make students understand that modern radiotherapy is essentially a problem of physical modeling and quantitative optimization. Each treatment constitutes a balance between the probability of controlling the tumor and the probability of producing complications in normal tissues, a balance that can only be achieved through a deep understanding of Physics, Radiobiology and irradiation technologies.

The figure shows a general outline of the contents developed in the Radiotherapy course taught in the Master's Degree in Medical Physics at the University of La Frontera, including the physical, technological and clinical foundations that support the planning, administration and quality assurance of modern treatments with ionizing radiation.

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