Professor Rüdiger Lange is the Medical Director and Director of the Cardiovascular Surgery Department at the German Heart Centre Munich. Professor Lange previously held the role of Director of the Department of Heart and Vascular Surgery at the same institution from 1999. Through his career, Professor Lange’s research has focused on minimally invasive operation techniques, the reconstruction of heart valves and transcatheter procedures for valve implantation and reconstruction. Educated at the University of Bonn and the University of Munich, Professor Lange underwent a two-year training period at Harvard Medical School, Boston. Author of a number of scientific publications, Professor Lange was awarded an honorary degree by Capital Medical University, Beijing, China in 2006. He was also awarded the Forum Prize of the German Surgical Society in 1991 as well as the Ernst-Derra Prize (1993) and the Hancock Editions-Prize (1990) by the German Society of Thoracic, Cardiac and Vascular Surgery (GSTCVS). Professor Lange is an active member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), Cardiothoracic Surgery Network, European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS), GSTCVS and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.