Dr Laura Dawson is a radiation oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and a Professor the Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto. She completed her medical school and radiation oncology residency at the University of Toronto and a fellowship in high precision radiation therapy at the University of Michigan, where she stayed on as a faculty member until 2003, at which time she returned to Canada to develop a hepatobiliary radiation
therapy program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

She is an internationally recognized leader in hepatobiliary and liver metastases radiation therapy and in the use of advanced radiation technologies, including stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and image guided radiation therapy (IGRT). She is the principal investigator of several phase III clinical trials, including RTOG1112, an international randomized trial of SBRT for locally advanced hepatocellular carcinoma and HE.1, a Canadian randomized trial of low dose whole liver radiation therapy to treat painful liver cancer, unsuitable for other treatment.

She has published over 150 scientific papers. She was a recipient of an ASCO career development award, and her research has been funded by the NIH, CIHR, NCIC CTG, and the Canadian Cancer Society.