Step into a world where barriers disappear!
#ESCCongress will be attended by inspirational members of the global cardiology community, giving you the chance to meet your heroes and ask all your burning questions.
This is an unmissable opportunity to network with practice-changing cardiologists including members of the ESC Guidelines taskforce, trialists, and international experts in each specialty.
There will be plenty of opportunities to connect with peers throughout the congress with informal conversations, expert-led sessions, and shared experiences. These moments help you share ideas, stay inspired, and build connections that go beyond Madrid.
See all faculty and presenters who will be in Madrid
ESC Named Lectures
Don't miss presentations from international leading experts during ESC Named Lectures given in recognition of the longstanding contribution of prominent individuals.
Carlo Di Mario (Florence, Italy)
Professor Carlo Di Mario is Professor of Cardiology at the University of Florence and Director of the Structural Interventional Cardiology Division of the University Hospital Careggi, Florence, Italy.
Previous posts included 15 years as Professor of Clinical Cardiology at Imperial College of Sciences, Medicine & Technology, London and Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital. He also practiced at the San Raffaele University Hospital, Milan, Italy. He trained in Cardiology at the University of Padova, Italy, but he soon moved for interventional training at the Thoraxcentre of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where he also completed a PhD in Intracoronary Ultrasound Imaging and Doppler.
Despite his teaching, research and administrative commitments, he maintains an active clinical involvement performing more than 100 PCI per year with special interest in the treatment of calcified lesions, chronic total occlusions, bifurcations, and diffuse disease. He is a regular TEER operator.
Donna Fitzsimons (Belfast, UK)
Professor Donna Fitzsimons is currently Head of the School of Nursing & Midwifery & Member of Senate in Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is a past ESC Board Member (2014-2020) where she led Patient Involvement activities and pioneered the establishment of the ESC Patient Forum.
She was previously an elected Councillor on the ESC Board 2016-2018 and was Chair of the ESC Council on Cardiovascular Nursing & Allied Professionals (2011-2013). As a member of the ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee she has lead work on involving patients in Guidelines development and review, as well as enhancing nurses' role in Guidelines Implementation.
Currently she is working on projects with EAPCI, ACNAP and Digital Health. Professor Fitzsimons' leadership demonstrates her commitment to improving the quality of patient experience and care through education and research. Her research interests in Cardiology include prevention, patient engagement and palliative and supportive care.
Rebecca Hahn (New York, USA)
Dr. Hahn is Professor of Medicine at Columbia University, Irving Medical Center in New York, and Chief Scientific Officer of the Echo Core Lab at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation.
She is the Director of Interventional Echocardiography at The New York Presbyterian/Columbia Campus Structural & Valve Center. She has served on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Echocardiography and is currently a member of the American College of Cardiology Competency Management Committee and Scientific Sessions Planning Committee.
She has published over 320 articles and 10 book chapters on Echocardiography and Valvular Heart Disease, and has been on the writing committees for 4 American Society of Echocardiography recommendations/guidelines and 4 Academic Research Consortium (ARC) documents.
She was the National PI for the SCOUT Trial (Trialign Annuloplasty Device) and is the National Co-PI for the Triscend Pivotal Trial (EVOQUE Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Replacement device).
Frits Prinzen (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
Dr. Prinzen is professor of physiology at Maastricht University (The Netherlands), specialised in electro-mechanics of the heart. He has managed more than 25 research projects in cardiac physiology, clinical cardiology and cardiovascular modelling, and is (co-)author of more than 270 peer-reviewed papers in international journals in medicine, physiology and biomedical engineering and (co-)inventors on 10 patents.
Central topics in his work are the consequences of abnormal electrical conduction in the heart for its pump function; with connections to left bundle branch block, ventricular pacing and resynchronization therapy. His group performs highly translational work and revealed mechanisms, proposed improvements in diagnosis and developed new therapies.
Within EHRA he has been chairman of the Innovation Committee; and is currently member of the Scientific Initiatives Committee, involved in organising Innovation sessions at the EHRA congress.
Carol Ann Remme (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Carol Ann Remme MD PhD FESC is Associate Professor of Basic and Translational Electrophysiology at the Department of Experimental Cardiology, Amsterdam University Medical Center.
Her research focuses on inherited disorders associated with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD), including SCN5A channelopathies and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM), incorporating clinical and genetic findings with functional and mechanistic studies in transgenic models and human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived (iPSC) cardiomyocytes.
Her work is furthermore aimed at identifying novel targets for the prevention and treatment of arrhythmias and SCD. Dr Remme is Chair-Elect of the ESC Council on Basic Cardiovascular Science (CBCS), Co-Director of the CBCS Summer School, and member of the ESC Congress Programme Committee and the ECGen Focus Group of EHRA. She is Deputy Editor of EP Europace and Physiological Reviews, and Associate Editor of Cardiovascular Research.
Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen is chief Physician at the department of Clinical Biochemistry, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark (1999). Clinical Professor of Clinical Biochemistry (Translational Molecular Cardiology) University of Copenhagen (2009).
She graduated as medical doctor from the University of Copenhagen in 1981. Board certified as a specialist in Clinical Biochemistry 1996. Scientific education of 7 years total, where of 3 years (87-89) at the British Heart Foundation’s Molecular Biology Research Group, London, UK.
Her research has focused on the genetics of cardiovascular disease in large prospective studies of the general population. Recent focus areas include Mendelian randomization, polygenic risk scores, and amyloidosis.
Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen is a current member of the steering committees of the Copenhagen City Heart Study and the Copenhagen General Population Study, and Executive Editor for European Heart Journal (2020-). Honors include among others: The EAS Anitschkow Prize (2018).
2025 ESC Gold Medalists
In addition, 2025 ESC Gold Medals honour cardiovascular specialists who have gained outstanding achievements in original research and scientific excellence.
Get inspired by their fulfilment in various fields of cardiology.
Lars Kober (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Professor of Cardiology and Consultant, MD, D.Sci graduated from University of Copenhagen and is a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology. Research interests: heart failure, coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation and the cardiovascular consequences of comorbidities, with a focus on clinical trials and epidemiology.
Main research activity is clinical trials and cardiovascular epidemiology. He serves as a member of the executive committee or steering committee in a number of large trials in heart failure and ischemic heart disease. The publication list encompasses more than 750 peer reviewed papers, and includes the 2015-2019 Highly Cited Researchers listing by Thomson Reuters.
Roxana Mehran (New York, USA)
Roxana Mehran, MD is an internationally renowned interventional cardiologist and clinical research expert in the field of cardiovascular disease. As Director of the Center for Interventional Cardiovascular Research and Clinical Trials at Mount Sinai, she has built a globally respected academic research center focused on developing randomised clinical trials, outcomes research projects and high impact academic publications.
A prolific researcher, Dr. Mehran has served as principal investigator for numerous global studies, developed risk scores for bleeding and acute kidney injury, and participates regularly in developing national clinical guidelines. She has authored more than 1,000 peer-reviewed articles and is one of the most highly cited researchers in the field of cardiology.
Dr. Mehran has founded numerous nationally and internationally recognised initiatives and organisations which have served to push the field of cardiology forward, improving the care of patients around the world.
Ulrich Sigwart (Geneva, Switzerland)
Ulrich Sigwart received his medical training at the University of Freiburg and University of Basel; graduation at the University of Münster 1967. He then completed a Doctor of Science in Medicine at the University of Freiburg that same year, followed by a “Venia Legendi” in medicine at the University of Düsseldorf in 1978. After finishing an internship at the Community Hospital of Lörrach, Sigwart completed his residency training at Framingham Union Hospital and the Boston VA Hospital, as well as a fellowship in cardiology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
After his training in 1973, Sigwart took on the role of chief of invasive cardiology at the Gollwitzer-Meier Institute, which later became the Heart Center North Rhine-Westphalia, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany, where he set up an invasive cardiology programme. Six years later, he became chief of invasive cardiology at the Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland, where he conceived and started his work on vascular stenting.
Remaining in this role for 10 years, from 1979 to 1989, he then moved to London to work as the director of the invasive cardiology department at the Royal Brompton Hospital for 12 years before ultimately returning to Switzerland in 2001 as chair of cardiology at the University of Geneva. He retired from his post as chief of cardiology in November 2006.
In 1987, Sigwart authored the landmark paper “Intravascular Stents to Prevent Occlusion and Restenosis After Transluminal Angioplasty.” He also launched the nonsurgical technique known as alcohol septal ablation (ASA), or the Sigwart procedure, a percutaneous technique to reduce septal hypertrophy in patients suffering from symptomatic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In the summer of 1994, he treated the first patients in London with this now widely used method, which allows symptomatic patients to avoid open heart surgery.
2025 ESC President's Awards
Bela Merkely (Budapest, Hungary)
Professor Béla Merkely is a Hungarian interventional and sport cardiologist, HF and EP specialist. He is the director of Semmelweis University’s Heart and Vascular Centre since 2007 and the current rector of Semmelweis University since 1 July 2018. Between 2010 and 2013 he was President of the Hungarian Society of Cardiology, since 2018 he is Honorary President of the Hungarian Society of Cardiology. He is also Honorary President of the Hungarian Heart Rhythm Association. Between 2014 and 2016 he was Councillor, between 2016 and 2018 he was Vice-President of the European Society of Cardiology. He played an important role in the organisation of the countrywide STEMI network in Hungary, due to which the rate of thrombolytic therapy for STEMI patients has decreased to <1%. As the director of Semmelweis University’s Heart and Vascular Centre, he is the leader of one of the largest heart transplant programs in Europe. He is the author of more than 500 peer-reviewed papers.
Panos Vardas (Heraklion, Greece)
Panos E. Vardas, Professor Emeritus University of Crete, Greece, had been the Head of the Cardiology Department at Heraklion University Hospital, Crete, Greece from 1990 until his retirement June 2017. Currently, Professor Vardas holds the position of Chairman of Heart Sector of the Hygeia Hospitals Group, Athens, Greece. In Europe, Prof. Vardas was elected to significant scientific positions. He was President of the European Society of Cardiology (2012-2014) and President of the European Heart Rhythm Association (2009-2011). Professor Vardas is the founder of the ESC Office in Brussels (2013) where he serves currently as Chief Strategy Officer of the European Heart Agency / ESC. Prof. Vardas had been awarded the Gold Medal of the ESC in 2014. His research activity (h-Factor 113, 149,950 citations on Google Scholar, 02/09/2024) primarily focuses on the fields of arrhythmias and cardiac electrophysiology, as well as on the socioeconomics and biostatistics of cardiovascular diseases.
Meet with your cardiology heroes this summer
Immerse yourself in an exceptional Scientific Programme that offers a global perspective - both geographically and across the full spectrum of cardiology.
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Our mission: To reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.