Ruggero De Paulis is the director of the Cardiac Surgery Department of the European Hospital in Rome, a position he has held since 2006.  After graduating from the University of L’Aquila and completing his residency at the University of Torino, he spent two years in an artificial heart programme at the University of Utah, and then two years as staff surgeon at the VI and XII University of Paris. Since then he has been working in Rome, at the University of Tor Vergata, where he was appointed Associate Professor in 2002.  Since 2020 he is Professor at the Unicamillus International Medical University in Rome. He has been EACTS President in 2018/2019.

His main interest is in aortic and mitral repair surgery. He is the designer of the “Valsalva” graft, currently used in most aortic root surgeries and co-designer of the “Physioflex “ring for mitral valve repair.

He has a large practice in treating aortic and mitral repair and aneurysmatic disease and is an internationally known specialist in aortic valve sparing and repair.