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Introduction: Professor Dr. Golam Abu Zakaria was former Chairman of the Department of Medical Radiation Physics, Gummersbach Teaching Hospital, University of Cologne, and presently Professor of Clinical Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences, Koethen, Germany. He is also appointed as Guest/Honorary/Adjunct Professor in many institutes or universities in Germany, Italy, China, India, and Bangladesh. He is the Chair of the Accreditation Committee-2 (Radio-Oncology Physics) of the International Medical Physics Certification Board (IMPCB) and Vice- Chair of IOMP Accreditation Committee. Dr. Zakaria is the founder Chairman, South Asia Centre for Medical Physics and Cancer Research (SCMPCR) under the Alo Bhubon Trust, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Prof. Zakaria has more than 40 years of clinical and academic experiences in medical physics (both in Radiotherapy and Imaging).

After Intermediate graduation in 1970, Dr. Golam Abu Zakaria began his studies in Electrical Engineering in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 1972, he was awarded a German governmental scholarship to pursue his physics studies at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, where he graduated as a physicist in 1978. After his postgraduate studies on Medical Physics at the Department of Radiation Physics and Biology (Prof. Dr. B. Markus), University Hospital Goettingen, he received his Doctorate in Medical Physics at the University of Heidelberg, Germany in 1986.

Since 1987, Prof. Dr. Zakaria was appointed as the Chairman and Chief Medical Physicist of the Department of Medical Radiation Physics at Gummersbach Hospital of the Klinikum
Oberberg, an academic teaching hospital of the University of Cologne. In 1990, Dr. Zakaria was recognized as a qualified expert in medical physics (radio-oncology, nuclear medicine, and radiological diagnostic) by the German Society for Medical Physics (DGMP). In 1994, DGMP certified him to educate and train medical physicists to become qualified medical physicists. Since 2003, he has been a Professor of Clinical Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Koethen. Since 2004, he has been teaching in an international Master program of Medical Physics and Biomedical Optics at the Medical Center Mannheim of the University of Heidelberg. Since 2013, he has also been lecturing at the School of Medical Physics for Radiation Therapy at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy. Moreover, he has been teaching at the Postgraduate School of Medical Physics at the Professional Education Centre of the University of Heidelberg since 2014. In 2016, Dr. Zakaria became Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, College of Information Engineering at the China Jiliang University, and in 2017 Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), a branch of the Bangladesh University of Professionals in Dhaka (BUP). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Oncology University under Harvard Medical School since 2019.

As a founding member (1993) and chairman (since 2001) of the DGMP Working Group on “Medical Physics in Developing Countries”, Prof. Dr. Zakaria has protruded organizing numerous medical physics seminars and workshops in different countries under the motto: “Help to self-help”. On his initiative, the Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering was founded at Gono University of Dhaka in 2000, the only department on medical physics and biomedical engineering in Bangladesh. Since 2001, he has been Patron Professor of this university and giving structure to the international master program. Dr. Zakaria has set up cooperation with various institutes, hospitals and universities in Bangladesh, Germany, India, and China for teacher- student- exchange programs and medical physicists training. About 80-90 personals including teachers, students, doctors had been trained in Germany under German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholarship.

Dr. Zakaria has supervised numerous Bachelor, Master, Diploma and Doctoral theses of German and international students. Moreover, he has enabled others to be trained on-the-job in medical physics. By now, Dr. Zakaria has published more than 115 articles in German and other international journals and books. As an engaged medical physicist, he has been member of several scientific societies: DGMP (1983), ESTRO (1992), AAPM (1996) and AMPI (1996). He is member of the Editorial Board of Journals like Physica Medica (currently known as European Journal of Medical Physics), Journal of Medical Physics, Association of Medical Physicists of India, DIN, DIN-ISO, and other international task groups. His main fields of interest are dosimetry, treatment planning, quality assurance, radiobiology, and radiation protection.

In 2009, Prof. Dr. Zakaria was honoured for his commitment to the treatment of cancer in Bangladesh by the Oncology Club and the South Asian Federation of Oncologists, being awarded the “Outstanding Personality of the Decade 2000-2010”. In 2011, he became the first non-physician to be awarded “Honorary Fellow of the Bangladesh Cancer Society (BCS)” and “Honorary Member of the BMPS”, in 2012 “Fellow of the Bangladesh Physical Society” and in 2013 “Fellow of the Academy of Sciences” in Bangladesh. He received “Global Radiation Oncology Distinguished Leader Award 2019” by Global Health Catalyst of the Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. In 2022 he was awarded as IOMP Fellow.

AFOMP thanks Professor Golam Abu Zakaria for his contribution in the development of medical physics profession in the AFOMP region, and Bangladesh Medical Physics Society (BMPS) for sponsoring the “Golam Abu Zakaria AFOMP Best Leadership Skill Award”.

Objective:
The “Golam Abu Zakaria AFOMP Best Leadership Skill Award” is dedicated to medical physicist who has demonstrated outstanding leadership skills in the development of medical physics profession in the AFOMP region. The award is supported and funded by the Bangladesh Medical Physics Society (BMPS). One award to be given annually.

Presentation:
The “Golam Abu Zakaria AFOMP Best Leadership Skill Award” will be presented annually at the Asia-Oceania Conference on Medical Physics (AOCMP) to the medical physicist judged by AFOMP’s Awards and Honours Committee (AHC) to have demonstrated outstanding leadership skills leading to the development of medical physics profession in the AFOMP region as appropriate for early career professionals.

Nomination procedure:
The award will be advertised annually by AFOMP, using the mailing list and the website.

Nominations should be made by the NMO’s President or Secretary General.
The nominee must be a working medical physicist or medical physics researcher/ faculty in the AFOMP region.
The nominee must be 40 years old or less on the 1st January of the awarding year.
Nominations are to be made to the chair of the Awards and Honours Committee (AHC) and Secretary General of AFOMP and should include the following: a) A nomination form evaluating nominee’s achievements and identifying the specific leadership skills to be recognized (the form will be made available with the call for nominations). b) Curriculum Vitae of the nominee including leadership roles, professional affiliations/memberships, awards, and recognitions.
Self-nominations will not be considered.
Current members of the AFOMP AHC committee and the ExCom are ineligible to be nominated.
Only NMOs that are in good financial standing with AFOMP can apply for the award. You can confirm your NMO’s status with your President/Secretary.

Criteria for selection:
The primary criteria for nominating Awardees are:

The nominees should have exerted an impact on the professional practice of Medical Physics in the AFOMP region as appropriate for an early career researcher.
The nominees have demonstrated promising examples of initiative, engagement, and leadership in medical physics.
The nominees have demonstrated contribution to community, industrial applications, or the broader field of work/research in medical physics.
The nominees’ achievements are supported by leadership titles, affiliations, memberships, awards, or recognitions.
The nominees’ activities in any national and/or international organizations for Medical Physics or have been meritorious.

Selection: All eligible nominations will be evaluated by the Awards and Honours Committee and a recommendation will be put forward to the AFOMP Executive for consideration.

The Award will consist of a cash prize of US $ 400, a certificate and a memento. The awardee will be asked to deliver a lecture at the AOCMP. The awardee will be notified with sufficient time in advance to plan to attend the AOCMP for presentation.

Download Nomination Form, and Checklist