Jens Overgaard Legacy Award

The Board of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) decided to bestow The Jens Overgaard Legacy Award on Hans Langendijk for having contributed significantly to the development of radiotherapy on a scientific basis, through publication of research in Radiotherapy & Oncology. This award is given to recognise the leading role he has had in creating an evidence-based platform for improving the radiotherapeutic treatment of head and neck cancer, and the scientific based introduction of proton therapy. He has set an international standard for how work conceived at a single university department can influence the development of radiotherapy worldwide. The publications related to this activity are among the most cited and downloaded papers from the Green Journal (Radiotherapy & Oncology) and also highly profiled at the ESTRO 2021 meeting. His work is a clear demonstration of the importance of evidence generating clinical science and have set an example for how to progress in radiation oncology on a scientific basis. Furthermore, the results have implications for ESTRO members being clinicians, medical physicists or RTTs, and will be a fundament in future radiotherapy.