On November 13, 2014, UT DRO hosted a Symposium to Honour the Career and Legacy of Dr. Bernard J. Cummings at the Cathedral Centre in Toronto. One hundred guests from the medical community were in attendance.
Several colleagues of Dr. Cummings shared their memories and experiences working with Dr. Cummings including: Dr. Mary Gospodarowicz, Medical Director at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre; Dr. John Dirks, President and Scientific Director of The Gairdner Foundation; Dr. Katherine Vallis, Lead – Experimental Radiation Therapeutics Group at University of Oxford; Dr. Patrick Gullane, Wharton Chair in Head & Neck Surgery at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre; Dr. Brian O’Sullivan, Head and Neck Cancer Site Group Leader at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Bartley-Smith/Wharton Chair in Radiation Oncology; Dr. Vincenzo Valentini, Chair of Radiation Therapy at Università Cattolica S.Cuore of Rome; Dr. Te Vuong, Director at Segal Cancer Center’s Radiation Oncology; Dr. John Kim, GI Radiation Oncology Site Group Leader at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre; Dr. Carol Swallow, Head of the Division of General Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital; Dr. Fei-Fei Liu, Chief of the Radiation Medicine Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Chair of UT DRO; and Drs. James Brierley and Anthony Fyles, who co-chaired this event.
Dr. Bernard Cummings also took the stage to introduce the Peters Bush Lecturer (Dr. Vincenzo Valentini) and to remind his colleagues to continue their work in radiation medicine.
In addition, U of T’s past President Dr. David Naylor, Deputy Health Minister Bob Bell, and President of Cancer Care Ontario Michael Sherar also paid tribute to Dr. Cummings, and thanked him for his contributions to cancer care over the last four decades.
