Rate My Professor Annette Haworth

Professor Annette Haworth holds the Chair of Medical Physics at the University of Sydney since 2016 and serves as Director of the Institute of Medical Physics within the School of Physics, Faculty of Science. In a conjoint capacity, she directs Radiation Oncology Medical Physics services at Westmead and Blacktown Hospitals. A qualified clinical medical physicist with over 25 years of experience in clinical practice and research, Haworth previously worked at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. She has contributed to cancer research since 1994, leading brachytherapy initiatives and advancing radiation therapy techniques. As Group Leader of the Biologically targeted Radiation Therapy (BiRT) team, her work focuses on leveraging imaging biomarkers like multi-parametric MRI to characterize tumour heterogeneity for precision radiation therapy, particularly in prostate cancer treatment planning and focal dose escalation.

Haworth's academic interests encompass medical physics applications in radiation oncology, including patient-specific radiobiological dose prescriptions, brachytherapy quality assurance, and stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy compliance. She is the Program Director for the Master of Medical Physics postgraduate degree and supervises multiple higher degree by research students, having guided several PhD and MPhil completions. Her influential publications include 'Biologically Targeted Radiation Therapy: Incorporating Patient-Specific Dose Mapping Using Multi-Parametric MRI' (2021), 'Progress towards Patient-Specific, Spatially-Continuous Radiobiological Dose Prescription and Planning in Prostate Cancer IMRT: An Overview' (2020), 'Focal therapy for prostate cancer: the technical challenges' (2017), and contributions to the RADAR prostate radiation therapy trial analysis. With thousands of citations, her research impacts radiotherapy optimization and clinical protocols. Haworth holds a Doctor of Philosophy and is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine (FACPSEM). She received the Judith Stitt Award and is recognized among prominent women physics professors in Australia.