Professor Ester Hammond
Ester Hammond is a Professor of Molecular Cancer Biology at the University of Oxford, and a senior research fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford. Ester studied Molecular Biology with Industrial Experience at the University of Manchester with a year spent at AstraZeneca (Macclesfield). Following her undergraduate degree, she completed her PhD studies with Dr Roger Grand in Cancer Sciences at the University of Birmingham. Ester completed post-doctoral studies firstly at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), Cambridge University and then from 1999 at the University of Stanford. While in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Stanford, Ester became interested in the biological response to hypoxia (low oxygen) and how this impacts radiotherapy response. In 2007, Ester returned to the UK and joined the Institute for Radiation Oncology, based in the Department of Oncology at The University of Oxford. In 2013 Ester was promoted to Associate Professor and then full Professor in 2017. She was awarded the Michael Fry award by the American Radiation Research Society (RRS) in 2015 in recognition of her exceptional accomplishments in radiation research. Ester is committed to graduate studies and training and became the Director of the Oxford-MRC DTP (doctoral training partnership) in 2019. Her research focuses on hypoxia-induced biological signaling, which determines radiosensitivity.