Sylvia van Dyk Site Visit Travel Scholarship

This scholarship is dedicated in memory of Dr Sylvia van Dyk, Phd.

Sylvia began her distinguished radiation therapy career at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in 1983 and led the brachytherapy service for over 20 years. She earned a Graduate Certificate in Medical Sonography in 2010 and her PhD in 2017, developing and validating the clinical use of ultrasound planning of cervical brachytherapy, successfully expanding access to vital soft tissue guidance for cervical cancer patients in low-resource settings.

Sylvia’s fierce passion for equity of access drove much of her international teaching and advocacy work, including designing an ultrasound for brachytherapy training curriculum with the Australian School of Medical Imaging, lecturing for the IAEA and UICC and serving on the scientific committee for the World Congress of Brachytherapy (2020-21).

Sylvia had been a longstanding member of the ABG since 2003 and joined the executive committee in 2017. She played a pivotal role in shaping our clinical workshops, chaired numerous annual scientific meetings and generously shared her expertise through countless hours of ultrasound training. As chairperson, Sylvia led the ABG from March 2022 to August 2024. She was passionate about the ABG's role in facilitating networking and shared learning amongst Australian and New Zealand brachytherapy professionals, championing the introduction of this site visit travel scholarship to further this goal.

The ABG’s current standing owes much to Sylvia’s vision and tireless efforts, and she will be greatly missed by the executive committee and all who had the honour of working alongside her.