Ruggero De Paulis received his Medical Degree at the University of L’Aquila, Italy in 1982. He trained at the University of Torino, Italy, at the University of Paris, France, and at the University of Utah, USA, before starting his academic and surgical activity at the University of Rome, Tor Vergata in 1991 where he became Professor in 2002. Since 2006 he is the Director of the Cardiac Surgery Department at the European Hospital and currently Professor at the UniCamillus University of Rome. He has been EACTS President in 2018/2019. His areas of interest are aortic and mitral repair surgery, aortic root and arch pathologies. He is the inventor of the Valsalva graft and has designed a physiological band for mitral valve repair.