Obituary Professor Ben Mijnheer

Ben Mijnheer recently passed away: his name was closely linked to ESTRO for decades, being the promoter of an amazingly large number of initiatives in the field of Medical Physics applied to Radiotherapy in the professional, education and scientific fields. We surely don't exaggerate if say that he has been, for a long time, an essential "component" of the original ESTRO's soul, from the pioneering years, during the '80 s of the past century, up to his retirement, not so many years ago. Apart from his impact within ESTRO, the world of the Medical Physics is in deep debt to this man, who spent so much of his life to the professional and scientific advancement of the medical physics field with inexhaustible energy and dedication. Who had the opportunity to work with him and, above all, to spend time in discussions, often in front of a beer or a glass of wine, cannot forget his positive attitude and innate altruism, always putting the future (and the possibility of improving it!) at the center; and looking to the past just to remember the roots where we came from. He was almost "obsessive" in focusing on what could practically be used to improve the clinical daily activity as rapidly as possible. Not by chance, the "legendary" ESTRO course on 3DCRT and IMRT included "in practice" in its denomination. Many medical physicists received inspiration and absorbed enthusiasm through this course; including one of the two authors of this short obituary, when joined this course in the mid '90 s and having the honor to replace Ben as course director a decade later. After many discussions about the passing of the baton, I (we mean…the one of us…) was invited as a lecturer at the last edition in Amsterdam in 2006 and remember well the gift he gave to all teachers, including me: a book dedicated to the "Amsterdam school", which contributed to innovating modern architecture in the past century. The message was clear: his will to contribute to creating innovative education for young people was one of the main purposes of his incredibly alive activity within ESTRO and, years later, outside ESTRO too. This led to his free will of service who remains a huge human example of dedication. Curiosity, open-mindedness, love for arts and music, irony and auto-irony combined with strong will, determination, tireless dedication to work, modesty: the "Ben we know" was these and many other things that cannot be translated here in readable words. Humor and a natural good spirit were among his major tracts and always influenced people that met him: it was quite uncommon to find him sad or worried. A little example from the past…Sevilla 2001, ESTRO pre-meeting course: again, the same, very active, Australian student asked another question and, again, the teachers and most of the audience did not understand, due to the hard accent. After few minutes, another question from the same student…Ben stands up and, with his finger directed to him and his fantastic smile, says: "Hey guy, please…speak English!". Goodbye and thanks for all, Ben! Alongside the above heart-felt words of regret, we would like to pay a formal tribute to the legacy left behind by Professor Ben Mijnheer on behalf of the Editorial Board of Physica Medica as well as its readers and authors. His contribution to the field of medical physics will always be acknowledged and his impact on the professional development and education of medical physicists will never be forgotten.