- Luciano Potena, graduated in Medicine in 1997, completed his clinical fellowship in Cardiology in 2001, and earned a PhD degree in 2005 at the University of Bologna, Italy. He improved his scientific education at the Department of Experimental Cardiology of Utrecht University, The Netherlands (1999), and at Stanford University, California (2003-05). He currently holds the position of medical director of the heart transplant and heart failue program of the Bologna Academic Hospital. - Dr Potena has been involved in heart transplant and advanced heart failure since his MD thesis discussion in 1997. His research path was focused on prognostic stratification of advanced heart failure, development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy, CMV infection, complications of immunosuppressive therapy after heart transplant, and antibody mediated rejection. On these topics, he co-authored 120 full papers in peer-reviewed journals, several book chapters, and he has been involved in the design and conduction of national multicenter studies on immunosuppressive therapy, and co-authored international guidelines in the field of heart transplantation and advanced heart failure. - He has been involved in leadership roles in several international medical societies, including ISHLT, HFA and ESOT. He is currently the president elect of ESOT and program co-chair of the ESOT congress 2021. - He is a reviewer for several medical journals, and has been in the editorial board of the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation and Transplantation.