Michael Molls was the director of the Clinic for Radiotherapy and Radiation Oncology at TUM from 1992 to 2014. Further activities include serving as member of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board at the TUM hospital “Rechts der Isar” and head of the Tumor Centre (Tumorzentrum, TZM) München of both Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) and TUM. He was particularly committed to process, result, and structure quality of interdisciplinary oncology.
As president of the German Society for Radiation Oncology (DEGRO) and head of the DEGRO Academy, Michael Molls contributed to the introduction of interdisciplinary guidelines for the treatment of cancer patients (in cooperation with the German Cancer Society) and he developed a curriculum for specialization in radiation oncology based on European recommendations. He promoted the integration of radiobiological and physical-medical research in radiation oncology.
In 1976, Michael Molls succeeded in cultivating mouse preimplantation embryos in vitro. New developmental and radiobiological (X-rays, neutrons, tritium, combination of radiation with pollutants, chemotherapeutic substances, hyperthermia) insights were gained using this system of fast proliferating stem cells.
From 2010 to 2016, Michael Molls was the co-speaker of the cluster of excellence “Munich Centre for Advanced Photonics” (MAP) of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) and responsible for the biomedical area of this research network. Together with colleagues, he performed experiments with laser generated protons/ions and investigated biological effects of nanosecond proton irradiation (cell death, chromosomal aberrations, DNA repair). MAP has built the framework for the “Center for Advanced Laser Applications” (CALA) at LMU and TUM. F. Krausz/LMU and M. Molls/TUM initiated the CALA project (63 Mio EUR). In 2011, it was recommended for funding by the German Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat).
Michael Molls focused his clinical research in cancer patients on tumor hypoxia, tumor blood perfusion, innovative imaging techniques for therapy planning, high-precision and individualized radiotherapy and the initiation of multicenter studies funded by the DFG and the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).
As a speaker of the TUM Senior Excellence Faculty and with the colleagues from “TUM Emeriti of Excellence”, Michael Molls founded the “TUM Sustainability Forum” in 2016. The Forum organizes interdisciplinary symposia (Sustainable Risk Management, Sustainable Development in Africa, Violated Earth – Violent Earth, Discovery of X-Rays – a Big Bang for Science, Circular Economy, etc.). Since 2020, Michael Molls is the director of the TUM Institute for Advanced Study.
Michael Molls is the author of approximately 400 reviewed publications and editor of textbooks, monographs and series of books on radiation oncology, radiation biology, medical physics, and recently on the topic of sustainability.
