ESC President's Awards

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 programmes in Europe. He is the author of more than 500 peer-reviewed papers.

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 in June 2017. Currently, Professor Vardas holds the position of Chairman of the 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). Prof. Vardas is the founder of the ESC Office in Brussels (2013) where he serves currently as Chief Strategy Officer of the European Heart Agency. He 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.