On April 3, 2012, the Radiological Science and Engineering Laboratory at Georgia Tech unveiled its most recent addition, the Varian Clinical Linear Accelerator Laboratory. This laboratory was made possible by the generous donation of a brand new Clinical Linear Accelerator by Varian Medical Systems. This was the culmination of nearly two years of the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and Varian Medical Systems working together to determine the best way to bring the world-class strengths of both organizations together. The following questions were answered by Varian Medical Systems about this partnership.
Why did Varian Medical Systems chose to make such a generous donation to the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering?
Response from
Elisha Finney, CFO: Varian Medical Systems is a company that makes technology for treating cancer with image-guided radiotherapy. Nearly two-thirds of all cancer patients will receive radiation therapy during their illness. Over the course of a lifetime, one in three women and one in two men will develop cancer. The good news is—we’ve gotten better and better attreating cancer. In many cases it’s no longer a death sentence—it’s become something that can be managed. Advances in radiation therapy have been a big part of that. Varian Medical Systems has been a leader in developing new technologies that focus radiotherapy treatment so that it attacks a tumor with minimal collateral damage to surrounding healthy tissues. We also have a goal of doing all that we can to save another 100,000 lives every year. One way we could think of to help realize that goal was to make sure that there are highly-qualified, well-trained medical physicists who know how to plan modern radiotherapy treatments. It’s a very specialized and technical skill set, and there are many places in this country and even more around the world where there just aren’t enough people who know how to do this. The shortage of skilled medical physics professionals is a problem we wanted to help solve. We chose to support the Woodruff School because its educational program developers share our vision and have stepped up to offer a well-designed, well-equipped medical physics training program. We also feel there is the potential for Woodruff School program faculty to help us in the future, with product and software development, and with testing of new technologies that are being developed as enhancements in radiation oncology.
How does Varian Medical Systems feel about corporate philanthropy?
Response from
Spencer Sias, Vice President of Corporate Communications: Corporate philanthropy creates opportunity by providing funding for important programs that can positively impact people’s lives. Without financial support, many worthy programs might never get started. Varian concentrates its philanthropy on research and education projects that can help advance our mission of saving lives. This can involve research that improves the quality of care as well as education that helps fill a need for trained clinicians. We also believe in employee-guided giving, and set aside some of our corporate philanthropic dollars to match our employees’ gifts to the charitable organizations they believe in. Our employees are great judges of worthy causes.
Your donation to the RSEL was a game-changer for our school. It has allowed us to proceed in areas that we weren't able to before. Would you recommend others to donate to or partner with the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering?
Response from Spencer Sias: The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering offers many important programs, including highly ranked programs in Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics. Graduates will be poised to make an impact in diverse industries, from transportation to telecommunications, from energy to bioengineering. We enthusiastically support these endeavors and would encourage others to do the same.
Learn more information about how you or your organization can partner with the Woodruff School.
