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In January 2023, we were saddened to learn of the death of Professor John Clifton, a former Head of both the UCL and UCLH departments of medical physics and a former Joel Professor of Physics Applied to Medicine. In his will, John left a substantial gift of money to the department, to which his daughter, Carolyn, added a further generous donation. This enabled us to create the John Clifton Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme, which provides postdoctoral researchers with funding for up to six months and an opportunity to implement their own research ideas, gain leadership experience, and strengthen their track record.

On Friday, 5th July 2024, we were delighted to host a visit of six members, spanning three generations, of John Clifton’s family, including his daughter Carolyn and her brother Chris. Their visit included tours of both the UCL and UCLH medical physics departments, and a visit to the UCLH Radiotherapy and Proton Beam Therapy facilities. It was also an opportunity for us to highlight John’s legacy and especially his role in establishing medical physics as an academic discipline at UCL.

We were also delighted to inform them of the award of the inaugural John Clifton Postdoctoral Fellowship to Dr Frédéric Lange, who provided a short presentation of his research project.

Carolyn emailed afterwards to say that the family had had a wonderful day, and were astonished at the breadth and scale of work being undertaken within both departments.

Written by Prof Jem Hebden, Professor of Biomedical Optics