(Vienna, 21 September 2018) Today the State of Vienna presented the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for services to the State of Vienna to Christoph Zielinski, Head of the Comprehensive Cancer Center of MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital. The award recognises the oncologist's work in the healthcare sector, which reaches far beyond State boundaries. The ceremony was attended by many well-known people from the healthcare and political sectors and the decoration was presented by Peter Hacker, City Councillor for Health, Social Affairs and Sport.
The Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold of the State of Vienna is an honour bestowed upon those who have performed important services to the State of Vienna through their public or private work. Christoph Zielinski is receiving the award for his commitment to his work as a doctor, as Head of the Department of Medicine I at MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital and as a campaigner on the issues and rights of cancer patients.
About Christoph Zielinski
Christoph Zielinski studied medicine at the University of Vienna, where he graduated in 1976. From 1976 until 1978 he was an assistant at the University of Vienna's Institute of Immunology and in 1978 he began his specialist training as a consultant of internal medicine at the Department of Medicine II in Vienna. He spent the period from 1979 to 1981in Boston (USA) as a fellow at the Cancer Research Center of Tufts University.
In 1992, Zielinski was appointed Professor of Clinical-Experimental Oncology and Clinical Immunology and in 2002 he became Head of the Division of Oncology at the Department of Medicine I. From 2004 until 2017 he acted as Director of MedUni Vienna's Department of Medicine I and, in parallel, was Vice-Rector of MedUni Vienna from 2008 until 2010. In 2010 MedUni Vienna appointed him coordinator and, in 2013, head of the Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) Vienna, a joint institution of MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital.
In 1998, Zielinski set up the patient action group "Living with Cancer" to combat social taboos about cancer.
Since 1999, Zielinski has been President of the Central European Cooperative Oncology Group (CECOG) and sat on the Executive Committee of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ES MO) from 2014 until 2017.
Christoph Zielinski is also a founding member of the Vienna Cancer Center established in May 2017, of which he is joint coordinator together with Michael Binder.
In addition, Zielinski is on the editorial board of a number of scientific oncology journals and for many years he published the German edition of the prestigious Journal of Clinical Oncology. Since November 2015, the renowned oncologist has been publisher of the peer-reviewed open-access online journal "ESMO Open – Cancer Horizons".