Farewell interview with the outgoing ECR Chairs: Beth, Gabri and Giorgio

How did the ECR Subcommittee actually come about?

[Beth]

In all honesty, the ECR Subcommittee was really the result of a few too many glasses of wine…

Giorgio, Gabri and I were all involved in the Radiation Research Society (RRS) Scholar-In-Training (SIT) Committee, and had seen first-hand how valuable it was to have a dedicated group supporting early-career researchers within a professional society. We felt PTCOG could benefit from something similar.

The opportunity came at the FRPT conference in Barcelona in December 2022. I had just met Marco Durante – we’d done a debate together earlier that day (which we sadly lost!), but it gave me the opportunity to get to know the newly elected PTCOG President…

That same evening I approached Marco and, after a few too many glasses of Spanish wine and a bit too little tapas, asked: “Marco, where are all the young people at PTCOG?? Why don’t we have a SIT Committee like RRS?”

Thankfully, Marco had a sense of humour and simply replied: “Well, make it happen!”

A few weeks later, we were discussing the idea of this PTCOG “SIT initiative” by email, and Marco suggested we propose a new subcommittee at the upcoming meeting in Madrid. I couldn’t make it to Madrid, so Giorgio and Gabri – who were both attending – took on the rather significant task of actually getting the subcommittee off the ground! They proposed it to the Steering Committee and held the first meeting to recruit members.

Once the subcommittee was officially in place, we quickly realised that our list of ideas was considerably longer than the three of us! We put out a call for volunteers and were completely overwhelmed by the response. Around ten people joined us to form the very first PTCOG ECR Operative Group, and were absolutely instrumental in turning these ideas into reality. One of the first points of business was to come up with our own name – and “PTCOG ECR” was born.

From those slightly chaotic beginnings, the ECR Subcommittee has continued to grow every year, with more members, more initiatives, and an increasingly visible presence at PTCOG meetings. What started as a slightly wine-fuelled conversation in Barcelona has grown into a community that we are incredibly proud to have helped build, with the support of our amazing operative group teams.

How did forming and chairing a Subcommittee compare to your expectations?

[Gabri]

I can really do with a parallelism here. When, as a kid, your mum (or at least my mum did it) woke you up at 5 in the morning, cozy you up with home-made pancakes and nutella, dress you up with an uncomfortable thick suit, throw you into a bus, up the mountains and you find yourself on the top of a slope with a pair of long slidy wooden sticks stuck on your feet…well, you didn’t really have the time to reflect on your expectations about skiing, did you? You clumsily go down the slope and, in the end, you enjoy the ride. We clumsily formed and chaired the Subcommittee, and we so truly enjoyed the ride!

Thinking retrospectively, I would say it exceeded our expectations in all directions. It has been much harder work than we thought. It really takes a job to coordinate a group and run activities, the engine never runs on its own. But on the other hand, it made us grow so much and it has been one of the most rewarding professional achievements that we can tell of. We would have never imagined.

What were some of your biggest challenges, and how did you deal with them?

[Giorgio]

I would say that it hasn’t always been easy for us, because we’ve had some important decisions to make along the way.

One of the biggest challenges was at the very beginning. We kicked off the Subcommittee at PTCOG-61 in Madrid, and suddenly we had the responsibility of creating momentum and giving the Subcommittee a clear direction. Luckily enough, ECRs response has been amazing since the very beginning in Madrid. We had many people who were enthusiastic about getting involved, and that made it much easier to start organizing activities for PTCOG-62 in Singapore.

Another big challenge was diversifying the Subcommittee, particularly in terms of professions and geographical representation. At the moment, the ECR community is still quite strongly represented by physicists and by people from Western countries. We would like to broaden this in the future and have stronger representation from the medical and radiobiological fields, as well as from Asia and other regions.

I think that actively reaching out to people, rather than simply waiting for them to join, has been pretty effective so far. It’s something we are still working on, but I think it is important if we want the Subcommittee to truly represent the diversity of the ECR community within PTCOG.

What are your fondest memories related to the ECR Subcommittee?

[Giorgio]

One of my fondest memories is simply meeting other ECRs at every PTCOG conference. It’s been really nice to see how our Subcommittee has grown into a community where people stay in touch during the years and come back year after year.

One of our main goals was to create opportunities for ECRs to meet, connect, and engage during the conference, and I think we’ve definitely achieved that. The PTCOG conference is not only a great place to meet colleagues and build your professional network, but also a place where friendships can develop.

I see this especially within the operative group. We meet regularly throughout the year, so when we finally get together at PTCOG, it feels a bit like a reunion. We always look forward to seeing each other in person, enjoying the conference, and spending time together outside the scientific sessions. Those are definitely some of my favourite ECR memories.

[Beth]

One of my favourite things has been seeing how much fun ECR has brought to PTCOG! The social events have become a bit legendary – dancing with Marco Durante in Singapore with his tie around his head (we have photographic evidence!), getting the PTCOG community out to a reggaeton bar in Buenos Aires, and playing good old-fashioned games on the beach in Deauville. ECR has always been such a blast!

But as well as all the fun and games, we’ve felt so proud to see the real contribution ECR has made to PTCOG. Securing funding to run the first PTCOG ECR Workshop was a particularly proud memory – and a great example of what we could achieve when we put our ideas into action. We’ve been incredibly lucky to work with such a brilliant, motivated, creative, kind, and supportive Operative Group, who have been behind so many of the ideas and initiatives we’ve developed over the past three years.

I’ve also loved seeing how warmly the wider PTCOG community has embraced ECR. Marco has been our biggest advocate, always encouraging and supporting our ideas – but also the PTCOG Committees who have welcomed ECR representation, the more senior researchers who have contributed to our mentor lunches and webinars, and the wider community who have turned up to support our plenaries and events. It has been amazing to see how open PTCOG has been to the ECR voice!

[Gabri]

I will try not to be repetitive, because I feel and share everything Giorgio and Beth said. Between my fondest memories there are two specific moments. The first was at the end of PTCOG-62 in Singapore, the first PTCOG with an active ECR subcommittee, our 1-year birthday. The relatively small operative group at the time gave us a card with pictures, signatures and a big thanks…being our first time forming and leading a group, that was a much-needed, heart-warming, loud voice that told us “you are doing well!”. It gave us the motivation not only to carry on, but to do it better and better. As much heart-warming was the gift and the letter we have been given at the end of our chairship during this PTCOG-64 in Deauville. Reading how much the Subcommittee meant for many of you was really moving. This, together with the wonderful response and recognitions of many ECRs and seniors, made me realise we did manage to do something useful in the end.

Last but not least, the beers, the late nights and the endless meeting between us three chairs (I heard my partner saying “alright, see you tomorrow” a couple of times when she realised I entered a meeting with Giorgio and Beth) where we incredibly managed to balance jokes and gossips with discussing decision to take, directions and new ideas.

What Subcommittee developments would you like to see in the future?

We’re so excited to see what the new Chairs, who we know will be brilliant, bring to ECR in the coming years!

We’d love to see ECR become increasingly involved in PTCOG decision-making, and strengthen the voice of early-career researchers within the society. It’ll be a long journey but these 3 years are the proof that we have all it takes to succeed!

We’d also love to see the Subcommittee continue to grow in both its diversity and its reach, and bring together early-career researchers from an even wider range of backgrounds, disciplines and geographical regions to better reflect the diversity of the particle therapy community.

Above all, we hope ECR continues to support young people in building their careers and finding their place within the particle therapy community. We hope ECR will engage and inspire the next generation, and ensure a strong and sustainable future for both PTCOG and the field as a whole.