About the speaker: Dr. Durante earned his PhD in physics in 1992 at the University Federico II performing his studies at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (Berkeley, CA, USA), and has worked as postdoc at the NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (Houston, TX, USA) and NIRS-QST (Chiba, Japan). He is generally recognized as world leader in the field of particle radiobiology and medical physics and is co-author of over 400 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals (h-index=57) and one patent on proton therapy (EU patent WO2013083333). He is currently chair of the ESA Topical Team on Space Radiation and of the Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group (PTCOG), and member of the technical-scientific Committee of the Italian Hadrontherapy Center (CNAO). Dr. Durante was chair of the ESA Life Sciences Advisory Group 2016-2020 and President of the International Association for Radiation Research (IARR) 2011-2015, and is Associate Editor in several International scientific journals. He has received many grants to support his research, primarily by ESA, EU H2020, NIH, ERC, and BMBF. His main scientific achievements have been the assessment of the biological effects of accelerated charged particles using both in vitro systems and samples from humans (astronauts and cancer patients). He demonstrated the validity of space radiation risk models by comparing the mathematical results with biomarkers, and with similar techniques he proved that charged particle therapy can spare the immune system thus representing an ideal tool when combined to immunotherapy.