Figures of the Heart Failure Association (HFA): Dr. Rudolf de Boer, HFA Board Member (2014–2020), Chair of the Basic Science Section (2016–2018), Coordinator of the Study Group on Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction, and Member of the HFA Study Groups of Translational Research and Cardio-oncology

Andrew J.S. Coats IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana Rome, Italy [email protected] Rudolf de Boer (Gouda, 1972) is member of the Board of the HFA of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) since 2014. Rudolf has helped to drive activities within the HFA and in the ESC. He considers himself a translational researcher, with interest in basic aspects of disease. But first and for all, Rudolf is a physician caring for patients with heart failure. Rudolf is a professor of Translational Cardiology at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and since 2013 Director of the Division of Experimental Cardiology. He studied Medicine at the University of Groningen. After his studies he spent a year in the Artificial Research Laboratory at the University of Utah. Dr. Willem Kolff, a pioneer in artificial organs and the inventor of haemodialysis1 moved to the USA in the early ’50s, but always welcomed students from his Alma Mater, and that is how Rudolf ended up there as an undergraduate student. It was his first encounter with biomedical science and it immediately became clear he wished to endeavour a scientific career. He moved back to Holland and did his PhD in the field of heart failure and angiogenesis. After training as Clinical Fellow at the University of Groningen, he became Consultant and Lecturer in Cardiology, and was Associate Professor in the Department of Cardiology from 2008 to 2010, promoted to Associate and finally to Full Professor in 2013.