About
The Revd Canon Dr Mike Kirby began work in the UK’s National Health Service over 30 years ago, as a Radiotherapy Physicist at the Christie Hospital, Manchester UK. He then helped set up Rosemere Cancer Centre in Preston, UK from 1996 as deputy Head of Radiotherapy Physics and Consultant Clinical Scientist there. His work moved back to the Christie in 2007 as Head of Radiotherapy Physics and Consultant Clinical Scientist for the Satellite Centres and he helped to lead their development in Oldham and Salford as part of the Christie Network. His research has primarily been in electronic portal imaging, developing clinical practice, commissioning and technical implementation of radiotherapy technology (especially electronic portal imaging and radiotherapy networks), IGRT and, more recently, teaching and learning for radiotherapy education. In May 2019 he (together with Liverpool colleague Kerrie-Anne Calder) published an international student textbook on 'On-treatment Verification Imaging: a Study guide for IGRT', through CRC press/Taylor and Francis. He and Kerrie-Anne contributed to the updated UK national guidance on IGRT (On-Target 2, published 2021) (which Mike co-authored the original in 2008); and their next IGRT book for CRC Press - 'Clinical Insights for IGRT: Prostate' - was published July 2024. The next in the series will be 'Clinical Insights for IGRT: Head and Neck' for publication in 2025.
Mike has graduate and postgraduate qualifications in Physics and Medical Physics from the Universities of Durham, Birmingham, and Manchester. He has professional membership of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the British Institute of Radiology (BIR), the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO), and is a Chartered Scientist (CSci) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in the UK. He has designed and delivered a week-long regional training course on quality assurance (QA) of Record and Verify (RandV ) systems as an expert lecturer for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Algiers (2016), including all aspects of integration of on-treatment radiotherapy verification into the RandV system. He acts as an expert lecturer/consultant for the IAEA in this area. As part of his long-term work with the BIR, he was made chair of the institute's national Radiotherapy and Oncology SIG management committee in autumn 2020, and is leading the organisation of national and international meetings on various aspects of Radiotherapy, Radiobiology and also simulation/VR in clinical education. Two annual meetings on Radiotherapy and Oncology have been organised in 2021 and 2022; and he has contributed to organisation of the 2023 and this year's meeting. Through the BIR, he has conducted national research for Dosimetrists in the UK, and is presently undertaking the same with UK Linac Engineers. As well as a senior lecturer (Radiotherapy Physics) at the University of Liverpool, he is also an Honorary Lecturer in Cancer Sciences (School of Medical Sciences) at the University of Manchester as a doctoral supervisor for the national HSST Program for training Consultant Clinical Scientists within the UK. Mike was made a Fellow of the British Institute of Radiology in 2022 and has been nominated for the BIR Council in 2024.
Mike is also a priest in the Church of England; having trained and studied at Westcott House and the Universities of Cambridge and Cumbria, he holds graduate and postgraduate degrees in Theology. His ministry has mainly been in the Cathedrals of Blackburn, Chester, and Liverpool (Anglican). He became a Residentiary Canon of Liverpool Cathedral in Feb 2020, with the title of Canon Scientist. He is a member of the Society of Ordained Scientists and has given numerous talks on Science and Faith to schools, colleges, churches and other institutions. As part of this work, he has organised lecture series with world renowned speakers at Blackburn (2016) and Chester (2018); this continued with a third series delivered at Liverpool Cathedral in May 2019, and a fourth series delivered online in 2021. A hybrid series (of online and face-to-face lectures) was first created in 2022 and continues in this format at present. See https://www.liverpoolcathedral.org.uk/exploring-faith/learning/lectures/the-gilbert-scott-lectures-on-science-and-faith/ . In conjunction with the STFC, Daresbury Laboratory and UoL Physics Department, Mike has organised an innovative science event for the teaching of Particle, Accelerator and Medical Physics within the cathedral for sixth form students from the North West Region in March 2024.