Vascular Domain Chair 2023-2026

Chair 2023 - 2026

Chair 2020-2023

Florian Schoenhoff is an associate professor of surgery and consultant cardiac surgeon in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Hospital Bern, Switzerland. He received his MD from the University of Heidelberg, Germany and trained in cardiac surgery in Bern with a special focus on diseases of the thoracic aorta. He spent 2 years as a research fellow at Johns Hopkins University, USA, working on biomarkers in patients with connective tissue disorders. Florian is responsible for the Marfan clinics in Bern, seeing patients with connective tissue disorders and cardiovascular involvement, as well as patients with complex aortic disease in general.

Member 2023-2026

Luca Di Marco is an assistant professor of cardiac surgery and consultant cardiac surgeon at the Cardiac Surgery Unit of the S. Orsola University Hospital, Bologna, Italy. He received his MD graduation and his PhD from the University of Bologna, and during his training in Cardiac Surgery he focused his interest and research on diseases of the thoracic aorta and on cerebral protection in aortic arch surgery with Antegrade Selective Cerebral Perfusion. During and after his training in cardiac surgery, he carried out several fellowships, stages and observership periods at qualified and important international centers ( St. Luc Hospital UCL, Brussels, Belgium; Cardiothoracic Department London Chest Hospital, London, UK; Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, St. Antonious Ziekenhuis, Nieuwegein, Netherlands; Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA; Department of Cardiovascular Surgery Herzzentrum, Freiburg, Germany; Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin, Germany). He is currently co-chairman and member of the Italian Group of Study on Outcome in Cardiac Surgery (GIROC) - Italian Society for Cardiac Surgery (SICCH), and co-responsible of the TEVAR outpatient clinic at Cardiac Surgery Unit of the University Hospital of Bologna. His main practice and scientific areas include aortic and mitral valve repair, minimally invasive surgery, open and endovascular surgery of the thoracic aorta, cerebral protection, heart transplantation. He is author or co-author of more than 150 publications.

Member 2023-2026

Member 2020-2023

Julia Dumfarth graduated in 2008 as a medical doctor at the Medical University Vienna. In parallel to residency in cardiac surgery at the Medical University in Vienna and later on Medical University Innsbruck, she obtained a PhD in cardiovascular medicine and spent a research year at the Yale New Haven Aortic Institute. Currently she works as academic staff surgeon at the Medical University Innsbruck and is specializing in aortic disease as well as heart transplantation. Her scientific focus lies in aortic disease, especially aortic dissection. As a member of VASCERN genetic aortopathies are another area of scientific interest.

Member 2023-2026

Member 2020-2023

Member 2023-2026

Member 2020-2023

Dr. Maximilian Luehr graduated from the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg School of Medicine in Germany in 2009. He started his cardiac surgery residency at the Leipzig Heart Center of the University of Leipzig under Professor Friedrich-Wilhelm Mohr (2010-2015). Dr. Luehr completed his training and started his professional career as a staff cardiac surgeon at the University Hospital of the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich under Professor Christian Hagl (2015-2020). In 2020, he moved to the Department of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery of the Heart Center Cologne. Although his professional interests comprise all aspects of cardiovascular surgery, his major academic and research interest focused on aortic surgery since 2005. In 2006, he completed a research year at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, USA, and studied experimental aortic surgery with his mentors Professor Randall B. Griepp and Professor Christian D. Etz. Since then he has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles. In 2019, he was elected to the board of directors of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (DGTHG).